I know only a few things about this photo. It's dated May 1, 1941. It comes from my paternal grandfather's photo album, so the shot was likely taken in Saskatchewan. I don't think this is my grandfather; the facial features don't seem quite right. Is he hoeing furrows into the soil?
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That is a mysterious photo all right. One of the tools the man is holding is a sod cutter, the one with the curved blade. Sod farmers in Saskatchewan would have died from extreme poverty, though, especially maybe north where I suspect that picture was taken (judging by the thin birch trees). You could use a sod cutter to cut roots and till soil. To me, it looks like he is preparing a garden plot near the house. Unless someone intentionally dropped a Rinso crate out in the wilderness... (Looking up Rinso, it was a popular, cheap soap brand for around that time period.)
To me the baffling thing is the aspect ratio of the photo. It's nearly 16:9, cropped a bit and the vignette frame added by the photo shop no doubt. Most film in the 1940's was 4:3, for economical and practical reasons I won't go into - I'm not well-versed in photographic film history.
The camera that took that picture may have been from the WWI era, or it may have been some holdover make from that time. The film quality looks better than 1920's photography, but maybe the light was just right. Still, that 16:9 ratio was somewhat more common for old-time film because you could develop a photo straight from the negative without enlargement. Maybe it was taken with a plate, one of those big accordion collapsible cameras? It's an X-File, Scully.
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