Embracing Where You Live (Even if it's "Flyover Country")
Finding mystery, serenity, and beauty in a place most people overlook.
Go ahead and ask one MILLION photographers what location they’d love to visit for photography, and I’m pretty sure “Nebraska” would be in running for last place.
When I first started photography, I thought living here was a curse.
Trying to learn the craft was difficult enough, but browsing all the magazine covers (we didn’t have Instagram back in those days!) made me think the only “real” photographs were the ones taken in busy cities, giant waterfalls, ocean vistas, and mountains. Lots and lots of mountains.
We don’t have any of those things here in Nebraska, and I thought taking “great images” here was impossible.
I’ve spent some days recently taking time to look back over my library of images, and even though it’s been almost 25 years since I first picked up a camera, I’ve come full circle: I think living here has been a gift that’s trained my eye like no mountain vista could.
By looking at the photos and reading some of my journals, I’ve come to three bits of advice about getting the most out of where you live, even if it’s not a perfect photography destination:
Embrace Curiosity and Mystery
Find Beauty in the Common
Dig Deep
1: EMBRACE CURIOSITY AND MYSTERY:
The more I started exploring Nebraska’s landscape, the more mysterious it became, and I’m still unlocking it’s secrets all these years later.
My fascination with the mystery of abandonment started early in 2003, as you can see by these photos of the first abandoned home I ever found (taken with a 6-megapixel DSLR and a terrible, terrible zoom lens):
Walking through the detritus was surreal.
Who were these people? What were their dreams?
Why did they leave?
And why leave behind so many things?
It’s these questions I ask myself all the time, and it’s developed into a “project” in the sense that I’ve never stopped taking these kinds of photos, all these years later. Here are some from a recent trip to western Nebraska:
2 - FIND BEAUTY IN THE COMMON
There is a simplicity to the landscape here. A repetition of color - a rhythm of shape and form.
Nebraska sometimes seems to be one large, tamed and tightly controlled landscape.
There are common, everyday stories to tell everywhere. This tractor was just left in a field one day… but what a beautiful retirement spot:
The Sandhills of Nebraska are one of our most treasured resources, and worth a lot of exploration:
A random dirt road holds the promise even more beauty just over the horizon.
Totally random trees in uncommon light:
3 - Dig Deep
So… no, Nebraska isn’t the place many photographers would choose to visit… but it’s my home.
The vast simplicity of it all, the wide spaces, the derelict towns and farmsteads: it’s all a tapestry for me to explore, not just the physical spaces I encounter, but to look deeply inside myself.
Why am I so attracted to these places?
The answer: I don’t know. I’m still exploring, still learning, still trying to unlock Nebraska’s secrets (and my own).
These are all spaces where something was lost. Something was left behind.
Nebraska is a memory of a place I’ve been before. I’m still figuring out what that means.
So for you: what’s mysterious about your area? What common things can you find? If you find something ugly, fascinating, trivial, or stunning: maybe that’s a reason enough to take a photograph?
CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK:
Take a photo of something simple. Share it if you’d like - but remember that simple, common things can be beautiful!
Here’s a shot of my neighbor’s house yesterday:
PHOTO SPOTLIGHT: Donna Gray
I want to share more great photography taken by others, so I want to start with this one. I recently went on a photography journey with two great friends to capture some fall scenes. This shot by Donna is just stunning:
I keep looking at her photograph - a great one of fall color, and so well composed. The color, the editing, and the crop: just wonderful, Donna!
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