Teen’s ag images launched into national farm spotlight

By Matt Reese

You have probably never heard of Erin Ehnle, but chances are, if you are involved in agricultural social media, you have seen her work. The 19-year-old farm girl/photographer/college student is the designer of a wildly popular series of images that have been lighting up agricultural social media, including pictures paired with facts that educate viewers on soils, the number of agricultural jobs the environmental benefits of agriculture and other topics.

“I was raised on a farm and naturally I am very passionate about ag. I love the life skills and the values it has taught me. I also have a very creative side. I started a photography business right out of high school. I always wanted to put the two together but didn’t know how,” Ehnle said. “I heard about an internship with the Illinois Corn Growers and I started dreaming up this project and putting together ideas to present to them. I ended up interviewing with them and they liked what I had to say and my vision. I started my page and it pretty much went from there.”

Ehnle uses images she has taken from around her farm and combines them with pertinent facts that educate consumers and appeal to farm folks.

“I think about how the image can convey the facts and I put them together,” she said. “I want to tell the stories of farmers in this area. I want to stress that we are family farmers because there seems to be a common misconception out there and that is not the case at all.”

Ehnle is the fourth generation of her family on the 1,500-acre farm near Edelstein, Illinois. She is currently taking classes at Illinois Central College, but plans to transfer to the University of Illinois this fall to study agribusiness and economics. Her images were getting attention around the country just days after she created them. After a week, she was getting requests from agencies, businesses and farmers across the Corn Belt for posters of her images.

“The response has been pretty large in that amount of time. The first time I started this I invited 100 of my Facebook friends to see my page. My goal was to get 50 people and go from there. The next day Illinois Corn Growers actually shared one of my images on their Facebook page and the response was huge,” she said. “I was shocked watching those numbers climb. It was hard to believe. I didn’t realize how fast it would get out there.”

One of her most popular images was her response to the now infamous Web article on Yahoo claiming college degrees in agriculture are among the most worthless.

“I sat down at my kitchen table and cranked it out,” Ehnle said. “I read that article on Yahoo about how agriculture is the most useless degree. I know that wasn’t true. I wanted to put facts out and rebut it a little bit.”

Ehnle has her images posted on her Facebook page titled “Keeping it real: Through the Lens of a Farm Girl.” She thinks the appeal of her images is in their simple, straightforward presentation.

“People don’t seem to have time to read huge blog posts,” she said. “That is why these images are so successful. You can read them in about 30 seconds and you click ‘share’ and you have gotten your point of view out there.”

Her success has been so sudden, Ehnle is still not quite sure about what her future holds, but she is glad she had this opportunity to help make a difference for agriculture.

“It is very humbling really. I am just sitting here on my farm in Edelstein, Illinois doing something that I have always loved to do,” she said. “My biggest fear has always been to live and die and not make a difference in this world. It is crazy to see that all of this is happening at 19 years old and I surely hope this is sign of things to come. My parents have always taught me to set my mind to something and put forth the hard work. With hard work I knew I could produce something that could make a difference. But all of this caught me by surprise. We’ll see where it leads.”

Heather Hetterick spoke with Ehnle about her overnight success.

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High-Resolution digital files of images by Erin Ehnle/Keeping it Real: Through the Lens of a Farm Girl can be ordered on her website. These images are available for personal use and by Ag in the Classroom programs.