Ana Paula Estrada
- Text by Alex King
- Photography by Ana Paula Estrada

To celebrate Huck 46: The Documentary Photography Special II, our annual celebration of visual storytelling, we are having a Huck website takeover – Shoot Your World – dedicated to the personal stories behind the photographs we love.
In this regular series, Out In The Field, we ask photographers to update us on what their working on right now by breaking their current body of work into four parts – The Question, The Challenge, The Payoff, The Lesson.
Ana Paula Estrada is a documentary photographer from Mexico City who now lives in Brisbane, Australia. Ana uses documentary portraiture to discover how wider social changes affect people’s live and exposes the pressures they face with a striking empathy. She received FONCA´s Young Artists Grant 2013-2014 to pursue her project The Hinterland, which looks at Australian farming communities whose livelihoods and entire way of life are under threat from the increasing globalisation of our food system.
Out In The Field #2
by Ana Paula Estrada
The Question
Who are the people responsible for the production of our food? How long will these small-scale family-owned farms last? Could it be possible that people I’m shooting will be the last farmers in the area?
The Challenge
I have had many challenges during this project; the biggest has been to get people to trust me to come into their farms. Some probably think it is a bit strange and they might wonder why is a Mexican in these small Australian towns trying to photograph them. But most of the time we ended up understanding and liking each other a lot.
I guess another big challenge has been to balance my family life with my work. When I started this series I was pregnant with my second daughter. It has been fundamental to manage my time properly, my “to do list” is my salvation!
The Payoff
For some reason I knew I wanted a photograph of a church in my series. I found one through Google maps and I went to photograph it. I got very excited when I saw this photograph printed on a beautiful paper. That’s when I noticed a much more defined aesthetic and somehow the images in the series began to match. The message on the church´s board meant something special for me: “The deepest longings of your heart confirm your origins”.
The Lesson
Farm work is hard; farmers are strong, resilient, disciplined and very wise people. Small-scale food production is very poorly paid work. The people who are still doing it do so because they care about their community and simply love the profession.
I’ve learned to value my food more and to carefully select the products I buy. Consuming local food really can make the difference to a farmer´s future. We, the consumers, have the power to change things.
Find out more about Ana Paula Estrada and check out more in our Shoot Your World photography takeover.
Latest on Huck

Meet the trans-led hairdressers providing London with gender-affirming trims
Open Out — Since being founded in 2011, the Hoxton salon has become a crucial space the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Hannah Bentley caught up with co-founder Greygory Vass to hear about its growth, breaking down barbering binaries, and the recent Supreme Court ruling.
Written by: Hannah Bentley

Gazan amputees secure Para-Cycling World Championships qualification
Gaza Sunbirds — Alaa al-Dali and Mohamed Asfour earned Palestine’s first-ever top-20 finish at the Para-Cycling World Cup in Belgium over the weekend.
Written by: Isaac Muk

New documentary revisits the radical history of UK free rave culture
Free Party: A Folk History — Directed by Aaron Trinder, it features first-hand stories from key crews including DiY, Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and Circus Warp, with public streaming available from May 30.
Written by: Isaac Muk

Rahim Fortune’s dreamlike vision of the Black American South
Reflections — In the Texas native’s debut solo show, he weaves familial history and documentary photography to challenge the region’s visual tropes.
Written by: Miss Rosen

Why Katy Perry’s space flight was one giant flop for mankind
Galactic girlbossing — In a widely-panned, 11-minute trip to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, the ‘Women’s World’ singer joined an all-female space crew in an expensive vanity advert for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland explains its apocalypse indicating signs.
Written by: Emma Garland

Katie Goh: “I want people to engage with the politics of oranges”
Foreign Fruit — In her new book, the Edinburgh-based writer traces her personal history through the citrus fruit’s global spread, from a village in China to Californian groves. Angela Hui caught up with her to find out more.
Written by: Katie Goh