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Lingering Spirit: A photographic tribute to Indiana's fading, forlorn, and forgotten places

PHOTOGRAPHY by John Bower, FOREWORD by Judy O'Bannon

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Read Judy O'Bannon's Foreword.
Read John Bower's Preface.
Look at sample images.

Lingering Spirit contains 208 stunning photographs by Hoosier photographer John Bower. All the images in Lingering Spirit were taken in 10 southern Indiana counties. However, many of the scenes depicted are reminiscent of those that can be found elsewhere in Indiana. Some images are dark and moody, some pensive and haunting, and others convey a stark realism.

Each page of Lingering Spirit reveals a moving portrait of a by-gone era. There are photographs of farmsteads, stores, tractors, cars, barns, even towns—all deteriorating, abandoned and, occasionally, just about ready to collapse. This wasn't always so. They were once vital buildings, vehicles, and objects, but their usefulness came to an end. So, they were set aside, then ultimately forgotten. Yet, they still radiate a warm and positive energy. Because they were places of human activity—designed and built by human hands—I can sense a remnant of our forebears' life force in them. This is what has been captured in Lingering Spirit.

The project description and philosophy

The photographs for this book include buildings, structures, vehicles, or pieces of machinery in various stages of disuse or abandonment. These objects were once central to the lives of a myriad of people—owners, operators, builders, employers, mortgage holders, residents—but are now forsaken. Yet, they represent our collective Hoosier past, and they help define who we are today.

When I shoot an abandoned church, a partially caved-in farmhouse, a rusted automobile, or an empty factory—I am very much aware how these objects are memorials to the lives of Hoosiers who came before me. I often wonder, what became of the women who gave birth and raised children, canned pickles, and pieced quilts, in those now-empty farmhouses? What about the men who worked 12 or more hours a day in those dreary dilapidated mills? Who was the original owner of that junked Ford pickup truck? What happened to the brick masons who built that one-room schoolhouse, and the generations of students who sat at its desks? While these personal stories are usually lost, my images pay homage to all these individuals who moved on.

Lingering Spirit - $22.00.
8.5" x 10" trade paperback, 144 pages, ISBN 0-9745186-0-3

	This book project was made possible in part by the Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency, with funds from the Indiana General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.