Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Spring 2011
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 31:2 (Spring 2011).
Abstract
Our collective understanding of place benefits greatly from the work of careful observers/ interpreters/writers/photographers who ultimately blend narrative and photographs into an explication of the nature of a region, a county, a town, a neighborhood, or a highway into a book of substance. Such books can bring us far more than straight geography, journalism, sociology, anthropology, or history can alone. Done right, the very cut of the wind and timbre of voices come through, making the place not only clear, but real.
Like No Other Place combines Owen's narrative about time, people, and place in the Nebraska Sandhills with his black-and-white photographs of the people and the land they inhabit. The text details his lengthy stays in the region, his exploration of Mari Sandoz's memory in the landscape, the hard facts of geography and economics that drive life in the region, a sweet dash of local cowboy poetry, stories of long-time ranch families and the strong people here, spring cattle branding, church potluck dinners, blizzards, school teachers, and finally the story of Owen's own exhibition of his Sandhills photographs in microscopic Ellsworth, Nebraska.
Comments
Copyright © 2011 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.