The Midwest, just like any region of the United States, has its fair share of stigmas and characters that embody the very stereotypes we form from our own bias and cultural experience. A visit to Greenbush, Minnesota (a town twenty miles south of the Canadian border) to visit extended family simultaneously reinforced and defied all previous cultural stereotypes I had formed from movies and family albums. While religion, machinery, and grit might be the stereotypes I had already expected to find in this small town of 1,076, it's sincere and uncanny. Corn fields and proximity to family breeds a certain kind of personality; one that leans towards hope and the reclamation of a simpler life. I use a 4x5 view camera to photograph specific regions to examine their culture; such as lifestyles, objects, and landscapes in a documentary style that leads to surreal and open-ended imagery.
