In the Fall of 2024 I had the honor of attending the Missouri Photo Workshop.

I had one week to find and follow a story in the town of Kennett. Here is the result.

Chandler’s Hands

Clouds form behind a sprayer applying the final round of agricultural chemicals to a cotton field near Kennett, Mo. After planting, the cotton crop receives seven separate passes with the sprayer. 

Matthew Chandler is rushing to spray the last round of defoliant on his cotton crop before Hurricane Helene pummels the plants with rain. He and his family look after an estimated 270 million plants, across almost 6,000 acres, or 10 square miles, in Kennett, Mo. Matthew is the fourth generation of the Chandler family to farm cotton, but the operation today is not the same as when his father took over the farm. 

Chandler said the price he gets for cotton today is only three cents a pound higher than his father was paid 30 years ago. And each new year brings new expenses. “Tech fees” on seeds and soaring equipment costs are among the many factors shrinking profit margins. Compared to his father’s early years on the farm, Matthew needs to produce almost twice the yield per acre in order to survive. His success or failure all depends on the weather. 

Matthew Chandler, 31, drives his sprayer outside of Kennett. He is the fourth generation of the Chandler family to farm cotton in the area. “(Cotton) is all I’ve ever known,” he says, while deftly navigating between the rows. 

When Matthew's father, Joe, took over the farm decades ago, he hoped to gather about one and a half bales of cotton per acre. In order to make a profit today, Matthew needs to harvest almost double that.

A farm hand mixes chemicals to make the cotton plants open their bolls and drop their leaves, making them easier to harvest.

Matthew watches the gauge rise on his sprayer’s tank during a routine stop between fields. The new sprayers hold 820 gallons, almost double the capacity of their previous sprayers. 

Joe Chandler helps his three-year-old grandson, Cane, don rubber work gloves so he could help his father and uncle work with the sprayers. 

Cane "helps” his uncle Matthew clean the filters on one of the family’s sprayers. When given the option of staying home or going to the shop, his mother said, he was assertive: “Shop!” 

Joe holds another grandson Walker Chandler, 1, outside the family’s workshop. He still drives heavy machinery when necessary, but he spends more time these days wrangling grandkids and managing operations. 

Matthew drives home after nearly 12 hours in the field.

Matthew uses a firehose to wash the chemicals off of his sprayer at the end of a long day. “If you don’t do this, it’ll rust through in one season,” he said.