The most important thing to know about me is this: I grew up on my great-grandparents’ farm in Kansas, in the same house my mom grew up in. 

I live in Los Angeles now, after stints in Austin, New York, Chicago and college in St. Louis.  And although I’ve lived away from Kansas longer than I’ve lived there it’s always home to me.  I breathe easier among the space and sky and vast open spaces.  I can stretch my eyes.

When I tell people I’m from Kansas I usually get a Wizard of Oz reference and a comment about how flat and boring it is.  I know we don’t have mountains and oceans and forests and those big majestic features people typically think of when they’re looking for a beautiful landscape.  But I think there’s beauty in the expanse of the high plains.  It’s an ocean of endless horizon and, at night, a sea of stars. 

Bob Dole once said that everybody thinks of Kansas as the ugly black and white place from the Wizard of Oz but they forget that Dorothy spent the entire movie trying to get back there.

For years I’ve told people how beautiful Kansas really is if they’d just look.  And I finally decided to show them.

The photographs in my collection were all taken within 50 miles of my family farm – and most are much closer to home.  I hope that in viewing these photos that you too will see the quiet majesty of the plains.   

Heather Crist
heather@heathercrist.com