WOODSTOCK — Itinerant slaughterer and sheep-shearer Mary Lake came of age among images of Vermont agrarian life.

Lake, who now lives in Tunbridge, grew up in South Hero, Vt., flipping through photo books like Peter Miller’s iconic 1990 “Vermont People” and his 2002 follow-up, “Vermont Farm Women.”

“I would look at the books and think ‘Do I want to take pictures like these, or do I want to be the people in the pictures?’ ” Lake, 39, said.

She ultimately answered her own question. In July, Plymouth, Vt.-based photographer JuanCarlos González released “Vermont Female Farmers,” a collection of portraits of nearly 40 women working in agriculture across the state. Lake is there among its pages, immortalized in black-and-white, shearing a sheep.

With the publication of González’s work, the lineage of storied Vermont photography books — with their renderings of rural, rough farm life — has gained a new member. The work is accompanied by an exhibit at the Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock, which opened in August.

González, 44, grew up helping his grandmother at her farm stand in his native Puerto Rico. More than once he heard customers approach her, after she had spent all day working on her land, only to ask: “Who’s the guy who owns the farm?”

In 2019, just after González and his husband moved to Vermont, he overheard a diner from a neighboring table at a restaurant ask a server: “Who’s the guy you get your meat from?”

“That was an immediate flashback,” González said. “I realized we’re still in the same mentality now as we were then. So if I can do something to amplify women in farming, I’m going to do it.”

A New York City transplant to Vermont, González — originally from Maunabo, Puerto Rico — worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over a decade. He cuts a different picture from Miller, who died at 89 in April, and in 2017 had to crowd-source donations to bankroll his final project “Vanishing Vermonters: Loss of a Rural Culture.”

González’s self-published book received a $2,000 grant from the Vermont Arts Council, but he put up the rest — around $52,000 — himself.

“The biggest thing for me was for people to learn the importance of supporting local farmers,” he said. Looking at the photos should inspire a mission, González added: “Buy local products from female farmers.”

All of the women González approached for the project wanted to participate, he said. The portraits, taken on the land they farm, often became a moment of reflection. “Some of these farmers, because there’s so much history, really opened up,” he said.

The forces behind Vermont’s farm economy have changed, and the photographic record of farm life in the Green Mountain State was due for an update, Lake said.

Women are the main producers on a third of Vermont farms, and nearly 70% of farms have at least one female operator, according to the University of Vermont Cooperative Extension program.

“When JuanCarlos called me, I was like, ‘This is exactly what should be happening,’ ” Lake said. Vermont farm women, especially now, aren’t just the wives of farmers, she said. “The farmers are two wives, or a group of friends, or the husband helps out at the farm.”

Becca Balint, the first woman and LGBT person to represent Vermont in Congress, penned the book’s forward. On the cover, small-scale dairy farmer Liz Guenther, of Three Cow Creamery in Corinth, poses with her cow, Blossom.

“This was a life goal, and a huge, honor,” Lake said of being included among González’s portraits. “This is now a part of Vermont farming history.”

“Vermont Female Farmers” is on display at the Billings Museum and Farm until Oct. 31. The museum, at 69 Old River Rd. in Woodstock, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $17 for ages 16 to 61, with discounts for seniors, students and children ages four to 15. Admission is free for children under three.

Frances Mize is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at fmize@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.