Rural Indiana

Rural Indiana is the series I've been working on for the past several months. It was in a gallery exhibit at Purdue University.

I have grown up in the small towns and countryside of rural Indiana. They are the places I have called home my entire life. They are beautiful but forgotten, much like my memories may become one day. I chose towns that reminded me of the one in which I grew up. I chose subjects by the way they communicated with me when I encountered them. I wanted the subjects to be representative of any small town in Indiana. Throughout this process I discovered repetitions of certain subjects. I’ve encountered the same once-functioning garage that is now used as storage, the same tall, single silo that stands in the middle of nothing, and the same overgrown gravel driveway that the farmers use to enter their fields. These places remind me of what life is really like. I purposely composed the shots so that the subjects would be objectified. I wanted to reduce them to what they really are: simple, rural constructions. Although there are no figures in these images, they are very much about the people who inhabit these spaces. The structures and spaces do not really ever change even though their purposes change periodically. They are simple yet full of character and personality. They are quiet and usually unrecognized. However, they are everywhere.