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Gunderson's Images Highlight "Year of the Barn"
Iowa’s barns have long held a fascination among photographers who attempt to show time as it was then against the backdrop of today. Many of the structures, plagued by rotted wood and faded paint, are at their most beautiful as in the photographs these artists produce.
Among the artists is Helen Gunderson of Gilbert, whose self-proclaimed passion is interpreting her own rural Iowa heritage.
“For many years, I lived in other states, but I yearned to be closer to the land of my youth,” said Gunderson, who grew up in Pocahontas County.
Gunderson acquired a master of divinity degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary and a master’s degree in instructional media from the University of Wisconsin—Stout. She kindled her passion for photographing rural Iowa scenes in 1980 when she produced a slide show for her all-class school reunion in Rolfe, and later, two shows for Rolfe’s 125th anniversary. After that, she intended to stop photographing Iowa and get on with her life in California.
“But I began returning to Iowa on photo forays in 1989, thinking I might try to interpret all of rural Iowa, but I soon discovered that was folly, especially when the idea of rural Iowa encompasses such a wide range of perspectives,” she said. “Out of these trips emerged ‘The Road I Grew Up On,’ a project exploring rural life in Iowa through video, photography and oral histories.” Her “roads” project received grant money from both the State Historical Society of Iowa and the Iowa Arts Council, as well as the Iowa Humanities Board.
Gunderson now offers a full range of images on her Web site, including a postcard with a collage of Iowa barns highlighting Governor Tom Vilsack’s declaration of 2005 as the “Year of the Barn and the Family Farm.” The images she selected for the postcard are of ailing barns that are either being partially used or not used at all or have since ceased to exist. The postcard will be available for purchase at Big Table Books and the Octagon in Ames, as well as on Gunderson’s Web site.
“I grew up the third of six kids, and there was something significant about being able to go to my grandparents’ farm and be able to stay with them,” she said. “It was a traditional farm with cattle and pigs—and there was a quality of life there that was deeply important to me. I would say that photographing barns and rural scenes is very much part of my spirituality. Some people get fascinated by going to France and seeing cathedrals. I don’t get much of a kick out of seeing those kinds of structures, so in some ways, barns are like cathedrals to me.”
For more information on Gunderson’s work and to view images of her recent work, visit www.gunderfriend.com.
