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After the Harvest: Indiana's historic grain elevators and feed mills

PHOTOGRAPHY by John Bower, FOREWORD by Birch Bayh

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Read Birch Bayh's Foreword
Read John Bower's Introduction
Read John Bower's Afterword
Look at sample images

Sentinels. Guardians. Cathedrals. These are just some of the words used to describe the towering grain elevators still dotting Indiana's countryside. Join acclaimed Hoosier photographer John Bower as he captures, in stunning black-and-white imagery, the majestic dignity of these vanishing agricultural icons—along with small-town feed mills and picturesque grist mills. After the Harvest is a celebration of the simple dignity of these utilitarian structures—their soaring wood, concrete, and tile exteriors, as well as their dusty, dark, hidden interior spaces. After the Harvest is a book about Indiana's agricultural heritage.

After the Harvest contains 188 moving photographs from every corner of Indiana. Some of these elevators and feed mills are still very much in business, but many are abandoned and slowly deteriorating. A number of them were being torn down as they were being photographed.

Motivation and inspiration for creating After the Harvest

While looking up in hundreds of Southern Indiana towns during the course of shooting 2nd Stories, it didn’t take long form me to realize that the tallest structures in many locales were grain elevators and feed mills. Like most Hoosiers, I’d always taken their ubiquitous presence for granted. After all, just about any Indiana town of any size had at least one of them. But, it soon became obvious, as we traveled from place to place, that these looming towers were rapidly being abandoned—and were disappearing—at an alarming rate. I realized I had to capture these once-vital economic enterprises on film, right now, before they fell down, burned down, or were purposely torn down.

Along the way, I learned a great deal about grain elevators—their design, how they were built, how they worked, how important they were to their communities, and why so many had gone out of business. Unexpectedly, I even found out about their impact on modern art and architecture. All this made for a fascinating visual story that reinforced the correctness of my desire to document this unsung aspect of Indiana’s heritage.

After the Harvest - $22.00
8.5" x 10" trade paperback, 144 pages, ISBN 978-0-9745186-3-3