“I get on the road and follow the photography … wherever I end up is where I’m supposed to be. I love living like that.”—Danny Wilcox Frazier
Wanderlust and a keen sense of wanting to make a difference:
practical prerequisites for anyone dedicating their lives to
photojournalism. As soon as he had the chance, Danny Wilcox Frazier
left his hometown of LeClaire, Iowa and headed to Kenya to live the life
of an international photojournalist. But it was back in Iowa where he
found his voice. Conesville, Iowa. 2003
Launch Gallery
It was the fall of 2002, and the impact of a steady exodus of single,
well-educated adults from rural areas, mainly in the Midwest, was being
felt as towns were left to wither in their wake. During what was meant
to be a temporary pause in a life lived abroad, Frazier was on
assignment for Mother Jones in Rockwell City, Iowa.
“I remember having walked around the town square, and almost all the
storefronts were boarded up. I went into this café and it just felt like
slow death inside the place. But then I was also thinking about my
short time in Kenya and the fact that every time I was out, I was
working in a pack of photographers. I very much enjoyed that, but I also
thought, ‘These stories are being covered.’ That thought was really
strong when I was sitting there—the reality that no one was covering
these small towns and the issues of rural America. Instead of just
having this desire of getting the hell out of Iowa, I all of a sudden
started to realize how great of a place it was, but, at the same time,
how much people were struggling.” Kalona, Iowa. 2005
Launch Gallery
Over the next decade, this exploration has resulted in a number of
projects, reaching from communities in Iowa, to the Badlands of South
Dakota, to the abandoned neighborhoods of Detroit.
Frazier spoke with Proof about his journey, and what happens when wanderlust combines with a deep-rooted sense of place. ALEXA KEEFE: You didn’t start out with the
intention of these places connecting but now you have a body of work
spanning the American heartland. How has one place led to another? DANNY WILCOX FRAZIER: Honestly, when I get to a
place, the reason for connecting or not is so by chance. It’s just these
connections I have to people, and then a feeling for the place, that
kind of overtakes me. The Badlands has been that. I did a few trips to
Detroit and it was the same. I kept getting pulled back.
My work is about the emotional landscape, but the physical landscape
is important, too, because in rural America, in rural societies at
large, there is a deep connection to [the] land. Neumann Ranch near Cactus Flat, South Dakota. 2013
Launch Gallery
ALEXA: How do you decide where to photograph? Do you just chose a place you’re interested in going and see what happens? DANNY: It’s a total road trip. I pack up my Toyota
4Runner. I got a nice Therm-a-Rest now, but what I used to do is put
down a futon, so the whole back had a futon mattress, and then I would
have food, water, beer, sometimes tequila. I take my mountain bike
sometimes. There’s so much gear it’s obnoxious, because of all the
different [camera] formats. A massive bag of film. All kinds of
cold-weather gear, different boots. That thing is an apartment on
wheels, because I live in it.
I know where I’m going, loosely, but even friends, subjects that I’m
going to see, they know that if say, “I’m going to be there probably
Wednesday,” they know that might mean Friday. I get on the road and I
just follow the photography, and wherever I end up is where I’m supposed
to be. I love living like that. Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota. 2013
Launch Gallery
ALEXA: What is it like for you when you approach a new community? DANNY: Every time I leave, I’m petrified. What I
love about photography is it has me out of my comfort zone at all times.
I am scared to death that I’m not going to meet anyone and I’m not
going to make any work, and that comes out of the fact that I’m
actually, outside of photography, a very shy person. So photography
forces me to go and interact with people. I wouldn’t be the person I am
without photography. Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. 2010
Launch Gallery
ALEXA: Your photography conveys a really amazing ability to be a fly on the wall. DANNY: Honestly, I really feel that subjects that I
work with for a long time become active participants in the
storytelling process. Now, that does not mean that they’re acting.
Quite the opposite. It’s that they have accepted my presence to the
point where they have taken their masks off and they are allowing me a
glimpse into exactly who they are. An in-camera multiple exposure of a funeral in Detroit, Michigan. 2010
Launch Gallery
ALEXA: How do your subjects feel about your photographs of them? DANNY: The one thing I can share with my subjects
are the photographs. I’m not saying at all times people love what they
see, but I’ve never had anyone who has rejected the work.
I have had people, like Courtney Beechum, who is on the cover of Driftless.
I remember when I took the family the book. They knew that Courtney
was going to be on the cover. I showed up at their trailer and everyone
was inside, and Courtney was sitting alone on the couch with her
brother and sister and mom and dad behind the couch. I walked up and I
handed her the book, and her family was going crazy—”That’s amazing”—and
Courtney wasn’t saying anything. Everyone else had gotten really
quiet, and her mom asked her, “Are you okay?” Then I asked her, “What
do you think?” and she looked up at me and she said, “It makes us look
poor.” That was hard. I was crying. Everyone was silent.
You know, it’s taken her years. She’s now a high school student and
she and I talked about this. She understands that photo now. All the
hope in that photo, she understands it. But the reality is the photos
are, at times, hard. Bad Route road, eastern Montana. 2013
Launch Gallery
ALEXA: And what do you feel is your responsibility to the people who open themselves up to you? DANNY: My subjects who I’ve worked with for a long
period of time know as much about me and my family. They know all the
positive things about me, but they also know the negative things about
me. It really becomes a deep friendship, and I share as much of myself
as they share with me. I feel that’s mandatory. If I’m not going to be
open and honest with them, then who am I to sit around and document all
the highs and all the lows of their lives? Midland, South Dakota. 2013
Launch Gallery
ALEXA: You grew up during the farm crisis of the 1980’s. How does the Midwest you are photographing echo the Midwest you grew up in? DANNY: I think the farm crisis had a profound impact
on my social conscience. It was a really difficult time, not just for
all the farmers but anyone who had a business [related to the farming
industry]. My father owned a small insurance agency in my hometown of
LeClaire, and the mid 1980’s, ’84 and ’85, were the worst years. The
Quad Cities, over the course of those two years, lost 20,000
manufacturing jobs.
And then you had the foreclosures on the farms, and it just was
really, really tough, economically, and it was tough on our family. My
father was able to make it through that period—he didn’t lose his
business—but it affected our family life, and that has always stuck with
me, the economic insecurity, the difficulty that people faced
everywhere. The opening day of deer season. Kalona, Iowa. 2005
Launch Gallery
ALEXA: Do you feel like because you have a personal
connection with the places you photograph that people take it more
personally when they see your depiction of their life? DANNY: It’s not that rural America is a closed
society or anything, but people are apprehensive about outsiders. They
can be very standoffish. But in their eyes I’m just a country boy, who
still lives in rural Iowa, even though I tell everyone who I work for,
where the work will go. I’m not hiding any of that, of course. But I
do think it helps with access. ALEXA: You are working on a book which will bring
together all the places you’ve been photographing over the past decade.
Tell me about it. DANNY: After Driftless was published [in
2007], I just started working further west, which is where depopulation
is happening—the Great Plains, western Nebraska, the Dakotas. These are
the counties that are hardest hit by depopulation. Again, the part of
the conversation where I see myself fitting in is showing all that is
still life in these places, so, yes, the struggle. There’s that
emotional tone to my work, that dark tone, but also the beauty, back to
what I think, culturally, is so important.
There is this rural sensibility that is very much about part of what
America is, and where we’ve come from. When you think, 100 years ago,
72 percent of the population lived in rural America, and 100 years later
… it’s down to 16 percent. Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. 2010
Launch Gallery
I want the book to continue that conversation of why these places
matter. I’m a small piece in this huge puzzle. It takes me, it takes
other artists, it takes academics, it takes historians, it takes
everyone focusing attention, and then the public will react and put
pressure on, and we’ll see some kind of change. There are pockets of it
all over the country, and food is a big part of that. If you look at
communities where they are paying close attention to sustainability in
agriculture, if they’re paying close attention to the quality of their
food, if they’re paying close attention to the quality of their
groundwater, those are communities where we are seeing local economies
grow, we’re seeing the health of the population improve, and that’s the
hope. That’s what we need, and we need other photographers and writers
to highlight. We need publications to highlight that. Danny Wilcox Frazier is lives in Iowa City with his wife and two
children. He is a member of Facing Change, a non-profit collective of
photojournalists documenting critical issues facing America. Visit facingchange.org to see more photographs from his projects Badlands, Driftless, and a Detroit Requiem. You can also follow Frazier on Instagram.
There are 12 Comments. Add Yours.
Joyce
November 26, 2014
You are a true artist with a camera and every picture tells a story-you are blessed with a wonderful talent!
Kristen Gunn
November 26, 2014
NOne of the links to facingchange, badlands, etc work. Is there some
reason I would be blocked from these sites? They all say “This website
is not available”
Alexa Keefe
November 26, 2014
Thank you for your comment. It looks like the Facing Change website is down. It would be worth trying it again a bit later.
Mark Murrmann
November 24, 2014
Echoing what Jeff Jacobson said. Danny is one of the best photographers around today. Great to see his work here. Thank you.
Andrew Lossing
November 24, 2014
Living in a rural part of America as I do, I can definitely
appreciate the kind of poignancy these photos convey. Even though it’s
all around many of us, this culture will one day evanesce and not
return.
Farhat Hussain Shah
November 23, 2014
Beautiful work!
Luca
November 22, 2014
Exceptional work. I liked all the pictures, but the first three more “landscape-style” are absolutely stunning!
isabel Hernández tibau
November 22, 2014
Un muy buen relato, lleno de sinseridad y esfuerzo.La honestidad
conque enfrenta a las personas que va a fotografiar, le da como
resultado un excelente material.Felicitaciones Danny!!!
Jeff Jacobson
November 22, 2014
Danny has become one of our greatest photographers. I also grew up
in Iowa. Danny knows the lay of the land, and of the people.
Audrey Williamson
November 22, 2014
Wow. I am too timid to ask people if I can photograph them, but if I weren’t, I would aspire to your level of work.
keith
November 21, 2014
Love your work. Will be looking out for future posts.
Christopher kitchen
November 21, 2014
is this is all for a non-profit organization how are you able to
travel do they pay you for your photographs or do you do it on your own
dime ? and if I was to goofle journalism photographs how would I go
about selling them ?
Kristen Gunn
Alexa Keefe
Mark Murrmann
Andrew Lossing
Farhat Hussain Shah
Luca
isabel Hernández tibau
Jeff Jacobson
Audrey Williamson
keith
Christopher kitchen
November 26, 2014