DAILY TOM

Beautiful and Eerie Aerial Landscapes of America’s Heartland

After working largely as a social documentary photographer for many years,Terry Evans suddenly found herself obsessed with America’s prairies one day in 1978.

It started when friends asked her to photograph survey work they were doing on a virgin prairie. Seeing the ecosystem and its ground patterns up close ignited Evans’ interest. “I started going out every day and spent an hour or more just photographing the ground in a way that I hoped was very objective and trying to see the patterns of biological growth,” she said. “I had this feeling if I could understand this ecosystem and see these patterns that I would understand how the universe worked.”

Ever since then, Evans’ work has, for the most part, has concerned the prairies, her “first love.” “I do very much feel like an advocate for it,” Evans said. “I feel like an advocate for conservation. That doesn’t mean I don’t think it should be used. I think it should be used in a sustainable way, which it’s often not.”