“Soil Samples is a 24-page photo zine of medium format black and white film photography, collecting work made across Northern and Central Illinois in 2024. Taking place in small agricultural communities of less than 20,000, like the one I live and work in, this zine explores the specter of 20th century American manufacturing and the blight it left on the land. Each book includes a tipped-in card with 6 soil samples taken at sites where some of the photos were made – several of which were/are home to EPA superfund sites. The work in this zine, mostly landscape images, explores contemporary rural life – filtered through the visual language of the Farm Security Administration. The images substitute the once looming threat of a dust bowl with a crisis of potable drinking water, hardscrabble tenant farming replaced with debt-saddled mega farms. The work debuted at the Black Beach Art Book Fair in March of this year in an artist book edition of 10. The half-letter sized full run is an edition of 60, limited quantities remain. “
