Intentional observation: “Flyover country”

I’ve been a fan of Jeff Lawson’s photography since I first laid eyes on it — roughly 18 months ago. The bulk of his photos are taken in the midwest (from Iowa to Colorado) and in Japan. While perusing Lawson’s fairly recent Flickr Photostream I stepped in to his Nebraska set. His descrption of the set starts by asking, “Flyover country? If you say so.”

I grew up in western Nebraska. Most of my friends yearned for the day they would move to Denver — the city, the mountains. Western Nebraska, mostly Sand Hills, is very desolate, but it is not as flat as most people believe (hence the Sand Hills). Nebraska is thought of as flat, I posit, because most people drive through it on Interstate 80. From York to the western border, I-80 more or less parallels the Platte River. The road is in a wide valley; of course it’s going to look flat.

I wasn’t afflicted with the same yearning to leave Nebraska, especially after spending my high school and college years in the eastern half of the state. It’s probably easier to appreciate the drama of mountains and ocean than rolling hills — hills with one tree for 19,600 square miles. And even though I’ve no desire to move back to western Nebraska (at all), I can not deny its beauty.

Flyover country? If you say so.

Taken in Springfield, Nebraska, 25 September 2005 by Jeff Lawson.