American Portraits, USA Road-Trip: Midwest and Heartland
Sixth set of American ‘portraits’ featuring interviewees during the USA road-trip(s): two ‘regions,’ the Midwest and Heartland including Indiana, Chicago IL, northern Kentucky, Iowa, Kansas City and Kansas. Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays to all!
The following blurb of text is the same for other posts in this American portraits series, spare yourself the second read and please share!
These will serve as way of introduction for some of the interviewees featured in the movie and hopefully give viewers an idea of the demographics encountered – and through that shed light on the possible biases or commonalities in the selection of people met along the road, as well as their answers. Though I sought to interview a wide array of people from different socio-cultural backgrounds, I’m aware of some of the limitations or under-representations in the selection of people featured (ie: fewer women than men were willing to be interviewed on camera, and some ‘types’ of people such as public servants or perhaps more influential people are less likely to give an interview to a road-running stranger driving across the country in a white minivan – nobody should, really).
Why quote-unquote ‘portraits’?
I hadn’t set out to do a series of photo portraits (though I should have – and will correct this deficiency in future projects) so these were taken on the fly, ‘as a way to get the focus right’ in the seconds before a video interview. And most of these (due to forgetfulness at the time) are simply screenshots from the video interviews. All pictures were treated similarly in LightRoom using a unique adjustment of contrasting and sharpening so please excuse their coarseness – I suppose this is my guilt-felt excuse for the untailored esthetic of these shots.
Featured here, and special thanks to them (city corresponds to where I met them, not always where they’re from):
Midwest and Heartland:
- Abbie, Chicago IL, believes in karma
- Dan, Mammoth Caves KY, car ferry operator
- MaryLou ‘Pinkie’, TN, owns Mary Lou Stitches and loves Harleys
- Paris, Indianapolis IN, speaking of the devil
- Brewing receptionist, Kansas City MO, “corporate beer sucks”
- Kansas University students, Lawrence KS, “don’t worry be hippie”
- Helen, Middle of the US, KS, works at the Visitor Center
- Keelie, Lawrence KS, mother – and her son
- Peggy, Mitchell SD, has a view on the Corn Palace
- Ramel, Kansas City MO, street cleaner
Great to see these new posts and beautiful portraits.
And serendipitous meet up with Kelly Slater.
Merry Christmas.