The day after Christmas I left Rochester, NY for Illinois and Indiana to make the last seven pictures on the project. As most of you know, this was the day that the mid-west was hit with a very strong snow storm, making travel difficult. I was able to get an early start and missed the worse of it and arrived in western Illinois late that night.
The first place I visited was a pasture filled with cows, very curious cows... they wanted to get close and be in the picture, so I let them. The first two pictures at the bottom of this page are from that location. The next three confluences were all fields of various crops, plowed under for the winter, and very flat. I think the pictures that I made will be better than my description of the fields, horizons, and sky. The last location I visited yesterday was just inside a wooded area on the edge of a soybean field. There was lots of snow which showed the tracks of all kinds on wild creatures. Deer, turkey, and what I assume to be some coyote, tracks were everywhere. The second two pictures are from there, at West 87°.
Today I will be making the last two pictures in Indiana, and they will be the last ones on the project. It has been such an amazing journey these past 14 years. Just one year ago I had all but given up on this work, I was much more excited about the Fort Juniper project, at that time. I am glad that I had to change those gears, this has been an amazing year of making pictures, traveling the country, meeting wonderful people, and most of all, realizing a dream. This was all possible with your support, and I cannot thank you all enough.
I will post some more about this trip in the next few days and will send updates as the scans are done and on my website.
One last thing, since the last update even more photo blogs and websites have posted about the project, they can be found at the links below.
Fast Company Design:
An Obsessively Precise Portrait Of A Latitude Line
Slate.com:
Bruce Myren: Documenting America's history along the 40th parallel
Slate France:
Sur le 40e parallèle
PetaPixel:
Photographer Capturing the 40th Parallel All Across the United States
The Huffington Post:
Photographer Bruce Myren's Fortieth Parallel Series Documents The Full Width Of The U.S.
best wishes from a motel room in Indiana
Bruce
