A remarkable story of past and present, Vanish - Disappearing Icons of a Rural America chronicles the "visual preservation" adventures of the Shelburne, Vermont filmmaker and photographer Jim Westphalen as he travels across the country seeking out and creating stunning imagery of America's disappearing rural structures.
For the broadcast premiere, Made Here Host Eric Ford visited Westphalen in his Vermont photography studio. Below is a written excerpt from that conversation.
This excerpt has been lightly copy edited.
Eric Ford: Can you tell us about the film?
Jim Westphalen: The film chronicles my 20-plus-year adventures, traveling not only across Vermont, but across the country, documenting these beautiful old rural structures that are disappearing at an alarming rate.
Eric Ford: What's the process for planning your trips?
Jim Westphalen: I left this map out just to show you a little bit about what goes into the research behind planning out my trips 鈥� dozens of locations. This is from a recent trip out the Dakotas, and you'll see I have all these locations pegged along the way. Months of research goes into a trip before I even think about the travels. And, of course, they're the real gems I often find when I least expect it along the way. But in the Dakotas, it's just a plethora of prairie churches and one room schoolhouses and, endless abandoned homesteads. Even local trips, they're planned for, the time of year, time of day. Fifty percent of it is the planning of it.
Eric Ford: How do you approach the research part of your planning? How are you locating all of these different locations where you're headed?
Jim Westphalen: That's a great question. It's a multitude of different resources. The internet is number one. There are other people out there, other photographers, amateur photographers who go around, and they have the same affinity for these beautiful old fading structures. I tap in to local town clerk offices, historical societies.
Eric Ford: Tell me about these locations that we're seeing on the map. Are these the exact locations of the places you're trying to find?
Jim Westphalen: In some cases, they are pretty exact in most cases, no. Once, boots on the ground, I might have a direction, like it's just north of this little town. So, once I'm there at the location, I end up knocking on a lot of doors. It's an awful lot of driving back roads and, and just being hopeful that I will come upon somebody who can tell us where these things are. You know, I had an instance in Montana where, I was looking for this old prairie church, and the only information I had that it was just north of this old town of Kremlin, Montana. So, turns out Kremlin is just a little horseshoe of about 10 houses, and it looked like an abandoned town. It looks deserted, but then I see this woman coming out of her house, and, so I stop and I ask her, and she says, I'm an amateur photographer, and I just happen to photograph old churches. It was providence.
Eric Ford: How do you decide, "That's the building I need to capture?"
Jim Westphalen: Without sounding too flaky, it has to speak to me in some sense. Sometimes it's just the visual, but most often it's a feeling. And you'll notice also that when I photograph a lot of these structures, many times it's from straight on. I feel like I'm sort of looking into the soul of the building, because if there a windows or doors, they're looking back out at me.
Eric Ford: You were talking about some of the challenges of transporting camera equipment around with you when you're out in the middle of nowhere. What are some other challenges that you experienced?
Jim Westphalen: One of the biggest challenges is the weather. It's a self-imposed challenge because I like to photograph these structures in harsh conditions that really shows their vulnerability. I've been out in thunder and lightning storms, where the hair is standing up on the back of my neck from electricity in the air. Deep snow storms where, I have to have covers on my camera and set up umbrellas with heavy weight bags on the bottom to anchor them. The weather is a the challenge, but that's the fun of it.
Eric Ford: What made you decide to create a film about this work? This is the first film that you've made. Primarily you're shooting photos. But what made you say, gosh, I really need to capture this process and what's happening?
Jim Westphalen: It's more about the stories. When I first started this project 20-plus years ago, it was just about the visual beauty and this beauty and decay that I try to capture with these structures. I think there is such lovely patina and rusted roofs 鈥� there's such beauty in that. But in my travels, I started collecting these stories from the people who either own the structures or have some history with the structures. And, as collected them, I said to myself, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could share these stories firsthand?" And that's how the film was born.
Eric Ford: You travel all over the country doing this work and also here in Vermont. What's it like for you, being able to share this film?
Jim Westphalen: This is such a gift to me because in my profession as a fine art photographer, I didn't really know the film business or how to get my film on PBS. So this is really meaningful, not only because it gives me a vehicle to show the film, but more importantly, to share the mission 鈥� that we're losing these structures really fast. We're traveling down this country road and the barn that's always there 鈥� after a big snowstorm, it's suddenly down. So, it's really meaningful to me that Made Here will host my film and get the message out there that these structures are fleeting and at the very least, they're to be appreciated now because they are not always going to be here.
Vanish - Disappearing Icons of a Rural America premieres on 开云体育's PBS station at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 6, and is available now on demand.
