In Search of the Corn Queen

Greta Pratt returns to the county fairs of her childhood to present a vision of American Midwest communities largely unfamiliar to millions of urban dwellers. In this book she has created a visual anthology of fairgoers and fair participants of all shapes and sizes. For five summers, she traveled the Midwest chronicling the rural life of the region - parades of civic pride, displays of exemplary harvests, and heifers and swine groomed by the Future Farmers of America. The photographer's journey takes us to North Dakota, Minnesota, Tennessee, Kansas, Mississippi, among other states. She stops along the way at peculiar, yet somehow familiar, communities.
In her introduction, Karal Ann Marling provides fascinating insights into Pratt's photos of county fair rituals and the regional culture that inspires these gatherings. She says: "They are home-made, do-it-yourself events, festivals of and by the towns and the counties from which they spring.... Along with old-timer reunions, centennials, and annual store-front festivals, fairs celebrate what it means to be an insider." Together Pratt and Marling transport the reader to a nostalgic yet contemporary custom, to a place where prize-winning hogs, tap-dancing children, flag-waving, and mouth-watering apple pie are once again American pastimes.

In the general introduction to these first two books in the National Museum of American Art's new series, "American Scene," the series editor and series curator express a hope to "present the evolving portrait of America" in a time when "the myth of the 'melting pot' has given way to a social fabric woven into a 'coat of many colors.' " While that noble dream is well on its way to being realized here, the reality still does not quite feel like art. The work of Bernice Abbott and Robert Frank, referred to in the introduction, provides insights into American life but is also characterized by a particular way of seeing. These books have less the effect of art than of photojournalism-though perhaps the best sort, one encouraging contemplation rather than sensationalism. Unfortunately, the problem lies largely in the nature of series, the constraints of size and format and introduction, which here places as much weight on the editors' vision as the individual photographer's ability to see. That said, these are nonetheless valuable documents of today's middle America, by turns pleasant and disturbing, honest, and mythical. Pratt focuses on the county fairs of the Midwest, the traditions they maintain, and, most importantly, the people who attend them. Arndt photographs men, mostly working class, mostly in crumbling cities, establishing a sense of unity among his subjects that makes it the more successful of the books. In these two multiple-image portraits, public libraries will find a moving record of fading people and their traditions.
Eric Bryant, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.