DRIFTLESS (United States, 2003-2006)
Sometimes it seems as if the heart has been torn out of America. Driven by economic hardships, the residents of Midwestern towns move away, toward the coasts, where there are more opportunities. The American state of Iowa is a textbook example: the landscape is filled with semi-ghost towns. In dramatic black and white, Danny Wilcox Frazier has recorded those who have stayed behind – farmers and hunters, the Amish, veterans during Memorial Day observances, and the youth trying to dispel their boredom. His darkly poetic images reveal a world that is disappearing, one that is sym-bolic of every community that feels the weight of the bankruptcy of its farms and the closure of its factories. In this way he lays bare the economic and social reality of rural America.A young girl dreams of becoming a summer festival queen like her older sister. Conesville, Iowa.
