On Second Glance: Midwest Photographs (Visions of Illinois) Hardcover - 1992

Without the evident drama of treacherous glaciers or mountain peaks, the midwestern landscape may - on first glance - appear commonplace. But those who look again will find an uncommon beauty as eloquent as that of the highest waterfall. With this distinctive collection of photographs, Larry Kanfer uncovers anew the drama of the prairie's changing skies and seasons and celebrates the serene dignity of the Midwest. "Elsewhere there are physical changes", states Kanfer, "but here the changes are chronological. In my photographs I show time - seasonal change, the cycles of life. That's where the beauty lies". As in his highly acclaimed earlier collection, Prairiescapes, Kanfer presents his own unmistakable vision of the vast heartland. Karla Vallance on National Public Radio described Prairiescapes as "capturing the uncelebrated fields and streams around the town where I grew up and turning the water of those ordinary places in mundane moments into the wine of art. His photographs are breathtaking in their amazing grace". Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post Book World said, "It may take a patient and discerning eye to find beauty in the flat landscape of the American prairie, but beauty is just what Larry Kanfer has found". With On Second Glance, Kanfer points as well to the overlooked details of the heartland. From Flatville to Foosland, from Santa Claus to Montezuma, Kanfer creates a remarkable portrayal of the working farmland of Illinois and Indiana. His photographs take on the seasonal splendors of sky and silo, of setting sun and rising grain. A compelling collection by one of the Midwest's finest landscape photographers, On Second Glance makes an elegant gift for anyone withfriends or memories in the heartland.