July 07, 2009

Raised in a barn...


I winced when I heard my rude neighbor yelling at his girlfriend, “Shut the door! What’s the matter, were you raised in a barn or something?” While his very public and uncouth behavior bothered me, I quickly realized that the phrase he meant as an insult wouldn’t cause offense if it were said to me. That’s because I love barns, and always have. And I’m one of many people who would love to live in one of those grand structures.

My love affair with barns began early in life. I was raised in the country in rural southern Minnesota surrounded by corn and soybean fields. Children of farmers were my playmates. Bicycles were our freedom to roam & explore and the surrounding barns were our private playgrounds for climbing or games of hide & seek.




Like many young people, I left the country and moved to the city for college. I grew accustomed to urban life, but my heart retains a passion for those barns I loved as child. I still frequently seek them out as I wander the country roads, but as an adult it is with a camera in hand. My searching has yielded hundreds of pictures of barns.






Throughout the years my pictures of barns have graced the pages of calendars, books and magazines. They hang as prints in private homes and public spaces like the airport in Portland and a ski resort in Pennsylvania.



For many people who love barns the structures symbolize endurance, security and stability. Sadly, many of the barns I photograph are sorely in need of repair. Numerous times I’ve returned to a barn a year or two after first photographing it only to find that it no longer is there. Many succumb to hard winters and old age. Some are lost to fire while others are simply torn down because they represent a danger and liability to their owners. In a very real sense those pictures in books or in a frame on the wall are all that is left to remember them.








As a child I loved the haylofts and hiding places of the barns I played in. Now I relish the details of the structures…the peeling paint, the interesting doors, the distinctive exterior decoration, the exceptional cupolas and weathered weather vanes. And if I’m lucky I see a unique inhabitant from time to time.






Barns continue to fascinate many people, including me. And there is a lot to attract us: their classic design, their solitary existence, the lifestyle they evoke. Most of all, barns are monuments of rural life. They are a connection to the past that we can enjoy in the present.