Grassland

The United States is seeing historic change regarding marijuana: a fundamental shift is in motion between those who seek to keep it illegal and the overwhelming populist appeal for legal reform. For decades, farmers in northern California have had to operate in secret, hiding their gardens from law enforcement. But as new legal markets have begun to emerge, marijuana agriculture is moving into plain view; the country, some are saying, is experiencing a "Green Rush."

Grassland offers a view of this world, peeking beneath the towering redwoods of Humboldt County, an epicenter of cannabis cultivation in California, where a sizable community is shaped by a plant regarded as both magical and medicinal; a plant whose cultivation holds the promise of profit, and, despite the changes in state policy, possible jail time.This formerly clandestine farming community is now boldly uncovering its greenhouses and growing giant plants in full sun, readying for what looks like the end of pot prohibition.

Living amongst marijuana growers in Humboldt County, and promising to use a pseudonym to protect those she photographed, H. Lee gained access to a world most don't see.

H. Lee is a fine-art photographer and writer living in New York.