Riverland Community College

CURRENT SHOW
Visioning Rural Iowa Through the Documentary Tradition
Kristine Heykants

The photographs in this exhibit are selected from Heykants’ seven-year-long photographic documentary project on her father’s hometown, Belmond Iowa. Uprooted is a portrait of the town in the early 21st century created through examination of roles played by people from all walks of life.

October 11 - November 22
Gallery open hours:  Monday - Friday 10 a.m - 6 p.m  

Kristin Heykants' Artist Talk | Zoom 

Kristine Heykants – Artist Statement

The photographs on display are from a long-term documentary project about the rural farming community of Belmond, Iowa (population 2300), where my father grew up on a small family farm. Arising from a desire to reconnect with my extended family and to know the Belmond of today, I spent seven years visiting and photographing the town, countryside and people who live there.

I use the project name Uprooted as a metaphor for sense of place– of migration due to economic, political or personal circumstances; for people leaving behind a dangerous or impoverished land.

I make use of archetypes as a framework for describing the community. By photographing people in a straight-forward manner with natural-looking light, I seek to let the subjects’ presence within their environments speak for who they are. I am interested especially in connecting what has gone before to what exists today.

I aim to create insight surrounding the challenges of positive human connection, particularly at a time when the perspective of city dwellers is at odds with those living in the country; while shedding light on the paradoxes, complexities and social realities of rural Midwestern life.

Images were created on 4x5 film and digital capture.