Iowa Photographs

Iowa Photographs is an ongoing series that began in the summer of 2012. After living in Chicago, Illinois, for more than two decades, my wife and I relocated to the comparatively small town of Iowa City, Iowa. It was a strange and wonderful feeling to know absolutely nothing about the towns and landscape that surrounded our new home. I immediately started taking day trips in every direction, which was easy to do, as the area has old highways that intersect like a twisted bicycle wheel, with Iowa City at the hub. A small town is never more than ten miles from the last one, with a grain silo and other provisions for the agricultural needs of family farms, some of which remain, while others have been replaced by large-scale farming. The landscape is dominated by corn and soybean fields. Traveling large distances by car and by bicycle is an experience of minimalism: slow, repetitive, meditative, calming. The towns are the heart and soul of this series. Rather than an experience of new discovery from town to town, it’s an experience of rediscovering the same palette of materials over and over again. These towns formed, thrived, peaked, and decayed in the same cycle of time, offering a consistent palette of texture, line, form, color, and cultural signifiers. Today, many towns are experiencing a rebirth and revitalization; it’s good to see it happen. As of October 2016, I have photographed in all ninety-nine counties and have published five volumes of Iowa Photographs magazine, available at barryphipps.com.