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Scott Allen (vividpix.com) began photographing the world around him in 1981, and his search for the perfect image has taken him through the lower 48, Alaska, and Canada. He began shooting performances, primarily the blues artists so near to his heart, in 2000. Allen is a contributing photographer for Blues Revue, and his work regularly appears on CD/DVD covers and in major blues publications. In 2008 The Blues Foundation awarded Allen and his wife, Jen Taylor, the Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Art & Photography. |
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Suzanne Smith Arney believes that the arts are a window to the world, reveal-ing the people and places, the sights, sounds, and tastes that make the Mid-west the best place to live. An elegant building, a bright swath of paint, the note of a violin, her 9-year-old grand-daughter Kate’s burgeoning photography skills (left) — all lead her on.
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Bryce Bauer’s passion for writing began while growing up on his family farm in Audubon County and deepened during his time as a journalism student at the University of Iowa, where he reported for The Daily Iowan before graduating in 2009. He’s now a graduate student at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.
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Nick Bergus is a writer, multimedia producer, and instructor. You can read his blog about food at deathofapig.com and explore the hub of his digital life at nbergus.com.
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Mary Blackwood was born in St. Louis and took a circuitous route — from Madison to Bogotá to Connecticut to Quito to Ohio to Providence to New York City to San Diego — before landing in Iowa City, where she discovered not only the soothing sounds of distant lonesome train whistles and hooting owls but also a delight in researching and writing about the many understated pleasures of her new home state. |
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Carol Bodensteiner grew up on an Eastern Iowa dairy farm, and though she’s traveled the world, she always finds her way back home. After a career in public relations, she followed her passion to writing. About Iowa. |
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Michael Brownlee currently resides in Plattsmouth, Nebraska — just a cornfield, Main Street, and gravel road away from the Missouri River and his hometown of Council Bluffs. The University of Iowa alum’s work includes stories in Edible Iowa River Valley and Little Village, stringer duties for the Associated Press and stints with The Daily Iowan, the West Branch Times and The Daily Nonpareil. Read his thoughts on sports, politics, and entertainment on wordpress.com.
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A Des Moines-based photographer originally from Ottumwa, Jake Boyd shoots real estate full-time, as well as weddings and family portraits. He received a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from UNI and previously attended William Penn University, where he played baseball. When not shooting or editing photos, Jake can be found playing Ping-Pong, working out, and drinking lots of coffee. See more of Jake's work at www.jakeboydphoto.com.
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Devy Combs earned her B.A. and M.Ed. from Graceland University, where she is currently the Director of Field Experience for the School of Education. She credits the English faculty for her discovered passion — writing — and has contributed to Lyrical Iowa and the 2000 Des Moines Art Center’s Faces of Iowa exhibition. She enjoys creating art from found objects, relishing the thrill of the hunt as much as the creative process. |
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Jim Duncan is frightened by the devil and drawn to those who ain’t afraid. He writes in this issue about four of the latter who defied a shibboleth that young Iowa artists could be Iowans, or artists, but not both. You can read his Iowa food blog a www.xanga.com/FoodIowa |
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Lori Erickson grew up on a farm in northeast Iowa and has been writing about her native state, as well as destinations around the world, for 20 years. She lives in Iowa City with her husband and two sons. |
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Sandy Flahive searches the nooks and crannies of Iowa, eager to uncover and enjoy the many — and sometimes hidden — gems that contribute to the state’s character and culture. |
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Susan Futrell is a fifth-generation Iowan. Childhood visits to her grandparents’ farms taught her to love rural Iowa, farms, and food — especially pie. After 25 years in marketing, she now consults and writes from her home in Iowa City, where she lives with her husband and two cats. Her current ambition is to have heirloom apple trees in her yard.
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After graduating from Grand View College with a degree in communications and journalism, Paul Gates became a stringer photographer for the Associated Press during the 1988 presidential election and later that year joined Business Publications Corporation as Photo Director. In 1999 he went freelance, producing images for such companies as Tone’s Spices, Pioneer Hy-Bred, Flynn Wright, and Gannett. He shot his first assignment for The Iowan in 1995. Contact Paul at Paul@Piphoto.com, and see his website at www.piphoto.com. |
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A transplant from NYC, Mary Gottschalk is trying hard to retire from a career as financial consultant. In her latest reincarnation as writer, she recently published a memoir, is working on a novel, and continues to explore her new home state. |
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Emily Grosvenor is a writer, translator, teacher, and essayist who spent two years as a Fulbright scholar in Germany. She met her future husband, an Ames native, while a camp counselor at a German immersion village in Minnesota and moved with him to Iowa City in 2006. She has been telling people she’s an Iowan ever since. Read her blog at http://alocalrow.blogspot.com. |
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The John Holtorf career path winds through busboy, salesman, lifeguard, musician, groundskeeper, heavy equipment operator, gandy dancer, bartender, and carpenter. John left a high-paying job as a construction superintendent in 1985 to take a barely paying position as a dark-room assistant in a mid-town Atlanta photo studio. He never looked back. On his own since 1990, he shows his work in his Beaverdale-neighborhood studio or online at www.holtorf.com. |
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Deborah Jansen grew up in a small Iowa town and loves the varied people and places of this state. As a freelance writer, she’s eager to uncover new stories never told and find fresh ways to tell old tales. She also teaches adult education classes that help families and communities capture their histories in print or on digital recordings. She lives in Pella with her husband, and together they thrive on bicycle adventures close to home and far away. |
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In a previous life, Mark Kane was the editor of Fine Gardening and Garden Gate magazines and the garden editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Now he’s a freelance writer and photographer in Des Moines, where some of his favorite community moments take place at the Drake Relays: sitting with the friendly and knowledgeable crowd at the Stadium — watching five events at once — and watching the unending flow of distance runners who pass near his house, waving to their friends, who wave back from curbside lawn chairs. |
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Writers Thomas S. Owens and Diana Star Helmer are Iowa high school sweethearts who currently live and work in Boone. Between them, they have authored 99 published books, most for young readers (such as The Cat Who Came for Tacos), but many for the young at heart. |
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David Peterson spent 32 years as a newspaper photojour-nalist, winning two Pulitzer Prizes while shooting for The Des Moines Register. His roots are in Kansas, with degrees from both Kansas State and KU, but today his life and freelance work are firmly planted in Iowa, where he’s spent more than half his life. David’s photography can be seen online at http://pa.photoshelter.com
/c/petersonphoto. |
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Terri Queck-Matzie began her love affair with Iowa while growing up on the family farm in the southwest region of the state. As a freelancer, she now writes about and photographs the state’s people and places from her home in Fontanelle. qmat@iowatelecom.net |
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When Shuva Rahim is not taking photos or running her photography business, she can usually be found in bookstores or with friends in Iowa City and the Quad Cities. Her lifestyle, family, and wedding photography can be viewed at www.accentphotographics.com. |
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Larry Reynolds has been behind the lens since joining his high school photo staff in the ’60s. He left Illinois in 1969 and went as far west as his ’67 Econoline van and one tank of gas could take him. He ended up in Iowa with a photographic style he sums up as “minimalist with gadget leanings.” www.stonesthrowe.com |
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Ty Smedes is an Urbandale freelancer specializing in landscapes, wildlife, and prairie wildflowers. His recent book, Capturing Iowa’s Seasons, can be found on his website at www.smedesphoto.com or at www.iowan.com. |
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Julie Staub is a freelance photographer, artist, and teacher currently based in Iowa City. After living in Seattle, London, and New York City, she realized there was no place like home and returned to her Iowa roots in 2008. She has nurtured a love affair with the local Iowa music scene since her days as an art student at the University of Iowa and isn’t afraid to get up close and personal with her lens. You can view her wide range of photographic work at juliestaubphoto.com. |
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Mark Tade is a lifelong resident of Iowa City and a graduate of the University of Iowa. His grandchildren represent the eighth generation of his family to live in eastern Iowa. www.marktade.com |
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Cliff Thompson grew up in desolate southwest Nebraska and discovered Iowa’s greener pastures while studying at Morningside College in Sioux City. He’s now a master’s student in journalism at the University of Iowa studying photography and online publishing. You can find Cliff on Twitter: cdt002. |
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Ken West is a commercial and fine-art landscape photogra-pher. His images featuring Iowa’s forests, prairies, and wetlands are displayed in professional of-fices and private homes and were recently exhibited at the National Center for Nature Photography, America’s first and only center totally devoted to that art form. His landscape work can be viewed at www.ioscapes.com. |
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Freelance writer and photographer Mike Whye began peering through lenses and writing stories in high school. After earning a master’s degree in journalism from Iowa State, he worked in both the newspaper and public relations trades. He went out on his own full-time in 1983 and since 2005 has taught journalism and photography part-time at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He’s a member of Midwest Travel Writers Association, serving as president for four years. (http://mwhye.home.radiks.net) |
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Peter Wilson is a Kentucky native who spent his undergrad days at the University of Iowa combing eastern Iowa’s nightlife. He returned to Iowa City in 2006 to work on his master’s degree in journalism. He now writes from his home in New Orleans, where the food is decadent, the drink is plentiful, and the clubs never close. |
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