The rural landscape around where I grew up, in Ottawa County, Michigan, never seemed exceptional or particularly noteworthy. The real sites, for me, always laid at the coast, along the sandy wooded shores of Lake Michigan. Only recently, after spending much time away from my hometown, has the rural heritage of my landscape gripped me in a way it hadn’t before. The agricultural scenes that once seemed commonplace and went blithely unnoticed by me now stood out in a conspicuous fashion. I became captivated by my once overlooked surroundings.

Barns, as a subject matter, have long drawn me to capture their images in photography. Now I have felt compelled to turn the cameras towards the barns that I may have seen regularly since childhood, but now notice again with fresh eyes. Winter adds an extra element of beauty to them, lying dormant, coated in a thick veneer of white. They come in many different styles, sizes, and colors. Gambrel roofs, lean-to’s, reds, whites and weathered wood. Some are still working barns, others long since abandoned to the elements. Though common, their ruggedness and utilitarian aesthetic provide an unnoticed kind of beauty.

Abandoned barn in patch of trees

Abandoned barn in patch of trees

Abandoned barn in patch of trees

Working Barn

Treeless expanses of snow-covered corn-stubble punctuated by barns marks the Ottawa Country countryside

Barn with lean-to

Abandoned Country Church

A cat huddles in the shelter of a window-well at a farmhouse

Abandoned Barn

Working Barn

One of Michigan’s Centennial Farms, owned and operated by the same family for over 100 years

Abandoned, deteriorated barn

Working Barn

Working barn and farm in town. A Michigan Centennial Farm, it remains active even though the suburbs have grown around it.

Working barn with curved roof, surrounded by junk

Greenhouse and outbuilding on a rural property

Working Barn

Working Barn

Working Barn

This barn on Main Street in Zeeland expresses the town’s rural heritage though the city has grown around it

Working Barn with Horses

Abandoned barn in town