In 2013 I passed through 12 states and 2 provinces. I was shooting pictures at 70 miles an hour from the passenger seat of cars, a bus, and 2 trains. We hit spring in the Northeast, late summer in the midwest, fall in Oregon, and early winter in the Eastern Sierra. We made a point of getting off the highway for meals and choosing smaller towns to stay in. But for hours each day the question remained: What can you capture that isn’t a blur? A related question soon became more interesting--what can the blur reveal?
Heartland is a record of accidents—who we talked to, what got caught in the frame. The photos show what I wished to see: bountiful farmland, quirky individualism, and magical visitations. Also dying towns, stunned faces, fallow ground. One thing's clear besides the bright, fragmented vision born of speed: We were lucky in our weather.
© Ariel Swartley
