Hill’s Dairy Ranch was homesteaded in 1911 by Melvin “Bompa” Hill just outside of Barstow , California, deep in the high desert of the Mojave.

 

While no longer a working dairy ranch, the alfalfa fields replaced with solar panels, several families, some descendents, others not, still call it’s 400 acres home.

 

I began traveling to the Ranch in late 1993 to visit Norman, one of Bompa’s grandsons, and his wife Peggy. Over the years, I’ve returned to continue making portraits of the chairs I found scattered around. They each have their own story and unique personality. “Kyle’s couch”, for example, never belonged to Kyle; he merely slept there outside one evening and from then on, it became “Kyle’s couch”.

 

Many of these chairs have uses outside their original design and none stay put for very long.