Indiana 24/7

Rating:
Summary: From the Indianapolis Star
Review: Everyday Hoosiers
Photos capture a week in the life of the state.

By Nelson Price
Star correspondent
October 24, 2004
 

Some images are amusing, such as a photo of a turkey farmer in Jasper surrounded by dozens of his feathered friends.

"They say there's only one thing dumber than turkeys -- the people who raise them," the farmer tells photographer Andrew Otto.

Other photos in "Indiana 24/7" are poignant, including a picture of a nun comforting a kidney dialysis patient at a Lafayette hospital. In the caption that accompanies photographer Frank Oliver's image, the nun explains that she initially felt powerless in her job as a chaplain, but eventually learned just to listen to patients and "let God do the rest."

The two evocative images are among 595 color pictures featured in "Indiana 24/7," a coffee-table book that's part of a 50-state series conceived by Rick Smolan and David Elliott Cohen, the creators of "America 24/7" (2003).

Dozens of Hoosier amateur and professional photographers -- including Indianapolis Star staff members Mike Fender (who coordinated the Indiana shooters), Matt Detrich and Jeri Reichanadter -- supplied images for the book.

As with every book in the series... each photo was taken with a digital camera during one week in May 2003. The photographers' marching orders were to "capture the essence of daily life" in their state.

Probably to no Hoosier's surprise, that translates into plenty of basketball photos, including Fender's beautifully composed cover image of a 10-year-old girl shooting hoops at dusk in her family's barn near Connersville.

Rural and small town scenes are abundant in "Indiana 24/7," even though, in a brief but insightful introduction, Dan Carpenter, an editorial writer and columnist for The Star, correctly points out that the state is more industrial than agricultural.

There isn't much of an urban presence in the book; readers don't really get a sense of Broad Ripple's nightlife or of Downtown Indianapolis' bustle, for example. There are nearly as many photos featuring tiny Newburgh as depicting Fort Wayne, the state's second largest city. Another Indiana city is referred to as (ouch!) "Terra" Haute...

The images are organized in sections with titles such as "Hard at Work" and "Indiana at Play." The latter includes Detrich's eye-catching photo of two young children in Fishers watching their brother's Little League game while shielding themselves from the afternoon sun with a multicolored umbrella.

At the other end of life's spectrum, a 110-year-old resident of Petersburg is captured in close-up by photographer David Pierini. His portrait is a standout, as is a candid photo of Brazilian race driver Airton Dare being doused with ice water by his crew during qualifications for the Indianapolis 500; the shooter was Joe Krupa of The Muncie Star-Press.

Because the photos were taken during a single week, there are no depictions of fall foliage or Indiana's winter. Even so, the state's beauty is captured in several images, including Dan Uress' stunning photo of a swan in St. Mary's Lake on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

Other images are just plain intriguing, such as photographer Ellie Bogue's picture of an Amish family's laundry drying on a clothesline near Grabill or Reichanadter's delightful photo of a barn cat perched atop a resting horse in a pasture near Fortville.

Rating:
Summary: More than corn
Review: I am so happy to finally see a book about Indiana that shows there is more than corn fields and flat land. This book shows the true Indiana and everyday life. And the custom cover is the best idea I have seen for a photography book. It is your state and your picture, what could be better than that.