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Measure of Emptiness : Grain Elevators in the American Landscape (Creating the North American Landscape)
The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1992. 107 pp. , softcover , 8½x11 |
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| IN THE AUTUMN OF 1971, after seven years in New England, I moved with my family to the Midwest. The windows of our hilltop apartment gave onto a comprehensive view of the Midway, a mile-long stretch of grain elevators and railroad tracks on the boundary between the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. During the months of disorientation following the move, I would often stare idly out the window, content, after my experience of the intimate, crowded landscapes of the eastern seaboard, to be once again in a place where my eyes could find real distances. As i gained my bearings, the grain elevators of the Midway began to draw my attention. Their scale, featureless surfaces, and simple repetitive forms gained a hold on my imagination that I could not fully comprehend. |
 Grain Elevator, Homewood, Kansas |