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Prairie Town photo show opens at L&C Center (April 17, 2008) – Photographer Jeff Haller spent two months immersed in the life of Red Cloud, Neb., his boyhood home and home of writer Willa Cather. The result is a photo exhibition titled “Somewhere in the Middle of America: Life in a Prairie Town,” opening Sunday, April 20 at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center Gallery on the Missouri Riverfront.
Red Cloud is a town of about 1,000 people, some 18 miles from the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states. Cather brought its pioneer existence to life in such works as “My Antonia” and “O Pioneers!” In the summer of 2006, Haller returned to Red Cloud and made photos as part of his master’s project at Ohio University School of Visual Communications, Athens, Ohio. He explored how people interacted with one another, with their history and environment. “At the same time, I explored my own history. I grew up in Red Cloud. It was home to generations of my family. For many years, it was my world,” says Haller. As an adult, the photographer came home to emerging stories: an aging population; the diminishing role of the small family farmers; and a decline in small business. “Still, life goes on in a small town somewhere in the middle of America.” The L&C Interpretive Center and the adjoining Betty Strong Encounter Center are located on Sioux City’s Missouri Riverfront, exit 149 off I-29. Admission and parking are free. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday. For more information, visit www.siouxcitylcic.com or call 712-224-5242.
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“I see my work as an intersection of
Willa Cather’s literature and everyday
experiences of real people,” says Haller, a
University Nebraska-Lincoln graduate. “In
some ways, nothing has changed since Willa
Cather’s day.”