I am not a native Iowan. Nevertheless, I have a great appreciation for the Iowa State Fair and what it means for the people of this state. I’d assumed the Fair was nothing (“nothing”) but food and giant hog competitions but that was good enough for me, and so I visited it after my first year of law school. And while it WAS all of that, I also found out that there were other competitions—including photography.
And with that, my quest to get a Blue Ribbon at the Iowa State Fair was on.
I entered a slate of photos my second year in Iowa and while I had a couple of them get selected for showing, I didn’t pull in any ribbons. My third year of law school would be my last try (I didn’t want to enter if I wasn’t living in Iowa) and I was hoping something would stick.
I was planning to undergo routine surgery in December of ‘18 and so, for the recovery, our photo coach at The Daily Iowan, Danny Wilcox-Frazier, had given me some photographers to study while I recovered, one of whom was Todd Hido. Hido’s landscapes immediately drew me in, especially his use of flash to illuminate falling snow, a technique I’d never seen before. I decided that, as soon as I’d recovered and there was some snow in Iowa, I’d go out and try the technique myself.
I wouldn’t have to wait long—four weeks after surgery, I was back to normal and a blizzard dumped several inches of snow on Iowa City. I wandered around with a flash and a tripod and managed to get this:
I was certainly happy with it, and immediately thought it would be good Fair-bait. That turned out to be the case—I submitted it (along with three other photos) to the Fair and found out that I’d won an award for one of them. But the Fair didn’t tell you what had won what—to find out, you’d have to go to the Fair. And so, I trekked out to Des Moines (let’s be honest, I was going to go anyway) and made a beeline to the photography salon. At which point, I was greeted with this:
It’s no prize-winning hog, mind you, but it’ll have to do.