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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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Motivation and inspiration for creating Lingering Spirit Ever since my wife, Lynn, and I met back in 1972, as first-year teachers in Kendallville, we’ve gone for drives in the country. We simply enjoyed the adventure of not knowing what we’d come across on a road we’d never driven down before. Then, around 2000, I began taking my new camera along on our excursions—a medium-format model, loaded with black-and-white film—and started shooting what interested me. Back home, I’d develop my film in a newly constructed darkroom I’d built in our lower level. One day, while viewing some of my prints—which consisted mostly of abandoned objects and buildings—Lynn suggested we create a book of my photographs. While I’d not thought of it before, I quickly agreed. Soon, she and I decided that we’d travel down every road in ten south-central Indiana counties, looking for the fading, forlorn, and forgotten relics that had been left behind by earlier Hoosiers. With ten county maps in hand, we covered thousands of miles, photographing poignant scenes of discarded vehicles, closed-up stores, and long-empty farmsteads. These places, and the resulting images, moved me deeply, as I know they will move you. They constitute a history of everyday Indiana, of lives and places that are rarely acknowledged or honored—but should be. Lingering Spirit - $22.00. |
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