Photographer Ian Adams is done. "I'm not sure I have another Ohio book like this in me," he says.
Years of photographs, all taken as Adams traversed back and forth across the state, have gone into completing his coffee-table tome, Ohio: A Bicentennial Portrait, to commemorate 2003 as the 200th birthday of the Buckeye State.
"I have actually been driving 15,000 to 20,000 miles a year," he relates, speaking from his Cuyahoga Falls home. "I logged over half a million miles in my car, mostly a Jeep Cherokee."
His method follows the three S's: study, search and serendipity.
"I certainly spend a lot of time networking across the state," he explains. "I did all of the captions for the book. I found the most incredible information just by searching the World Wide Web. At some point, you actually have to get off your butt and get in your car and drive along the back roads."
Driving around Ohio has allowed Adams to discover images that others might pass on by. Vibrant yellow daffodils poke through the pure white snow at Lantern Court in Northeast Ohio. A misty morning and muddy water barely conceal a wooden boardwalk along the Ohio-Erie Canal Towpath Trail in Summit County. Rolling fields near Winesburg in Amish country allow wheat shocks to dry.
"It's a celebration of the Ohio landscape," Adams says. "It's not in any way meant to be a day in the life of Ohio."
It'd be one awfully long day if it was.
The letters on the bricks aren't easy to read. It's clear something is imprinted amidst the various shades of orange and red that line the side of Route 278, but on only one do the letters clear of paint and cement to form something legible: Nelsonville Block.
"If you drive Route 278, you go right past these old brick kilns," Adams says. "They're sort of preserved by the side of the road. It just became an interesting abstract, and frankly I love stuff like that."
The countryside, no matter its shape or design, has long been the focus of Adams' work.
"I've always been interested in landscape photography," he says. "We don't have the dramatic landscapes that they have out West. I think I've always been drawn to the oldest landscapes. I just tend to find myself drawn to the older landscapes as opposed to the newer ones as a photographer."
With that said, one thing is noticeably missing from Adams' images. Well, for the most part.
"I sort of tend to think of people as incidental to photographs," he explains.
If humans enter the scene, they're typically part of the background. An exception to Adams' viewpoint was found near Mount Hope in Holmes County.
"I've continued to document rural Ohio," he says. "I love going out to Ohio's rural Amish country."
Adams caught on film the Amish tradition of a barn-raising. It's a show of the strength of community as 200 men assembled the structure, primarily using hand tools, in one day.
"I tried to photograph them from a distance," he says. "I tried to capture them from behind. They really don't like standing there and mugging for the camera."
Though Adams has a penchant for rural life, he by no means neglects urban structures. And yes, that does include some time spent here in the Queen City. Perusing Ohio: A Bicentennial Portrait, Cincinnatians should recognize such familiar landmarks such as the John Roebling Suspension Bridge, Hughes High School, Withrow High School and a view of the downtown skyline shot from the steps of Mount Adams' Holy Cross-Immaculata Church.
"I think Cincinnati has done a better job of retaining a lot of its historic architecture, particularly in Over-the-Rhine, not withstanding the problems it has there," he says.
Maybe a commendation like that means Adams isn't done photographing Ohio just yet.
IAN ADAMS will sign and discuss Ohio: A Bicentennial Portrait at 11 a.m. Saturday at Joseph-Beth Booksellers.
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