Ellen Kok

Photographer and Writer
  
You Are a Girl and You Want to Milk Cows
Public Project
You Are a Girl and You Want to Milk Cows
Copyright Ellen Kok 2024
Date of Work Jan 1995 - Jan 2005
Updated Mar 2021
Location The Netherlands
Topics Adolescence, Agriculture, Black and White, Documentary, Dreams, Education, Feminism, Migration, Photography, Youth
Mirjam (19) from the village of Waarder in the Netherlands, wants to become a dairy farmer. However, her father’s farm is just a small enterprise, she won’t be able to make her future there as well. Mirjam will have to find her place as a farmer elsewhere.

After graduating from the agricultural school, she wants to get more work experience. She travels to New Zealand to work on the dairy farm of a Dutch emigrant. She plans to attend the agricultural college when she returns. But Mirjam enjoys the adventure of working in a faraway foreign country. When a friend of her New Zealand boss invites her to come to Australia to milk his cows for a few months as well, she doesn’t hesitate. And now that she is used to the space of another continent, she actually doesn’t want to go back to the Netherlands.

On the dairy farm in Australia, in the state of Victoria, Mirjam milks 350 cows twice a day.
6,888

Also by Ellen Kok —

Project

I Am Asking for Your Vote

Ellen Kok / USA
Project

Precious Stream Through a Dry Landscape

Ellen Kok / USA, New Mexico
Project

Happy Birthday! Dutch Children’s Parties

Ellen Kok / The Netherlands
Project

The Final Days of a Dairy Farm

Ellen Kok / Kamerik, The Netherlands
Project

Farming for the Neighbors

Ellen Kok / USA, New Hampshire; The Netherlands, Linschoten
Project

I Have a Tribe, They Are Only Americans

Ellen Kok / USA, Colorado, Fort Collins, Loveland, Denver
Project

American Moments

Ellen Kok / USA
Project

The Laundromat

Ellen Kok / USA, New Hampshire, Vermont
Project

Cadets

Ellen Kok / USA
Project

Drewsville & Beyond

Ellen Kok / USA
Project

On the Land

Ellen Kok / The Netherlands
Project

You'll Hear Us Roar

Ellen Kok / USA
Project

School

Ellen Kok / Woerden, The Netherlands
Project

A Very Personal Animal

Ellen Kok / The Netherlands
Project

Farewell, With Elegance

Ellen Kok / USA, Vermont, Springfield
Project

The Other Farm

Ellen Kok / USA, The Netherlands
Project

With God and Ayudante Across Guatemala

Ellen Kok / Guatemala
You Are a Girl and You Want to Milk Cows by Ellen Kok
Sign-up for
For more access