Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky

by Joel Sartore

Welcome to a journey across Nebraska. Relax, take your time, and enjoy the vistas. From Chadron to Falls City, Carhenge to the Wayne Chicken Show, Burwell to Omaha, and everywhere in between, this book captures all that is Nebraska—the people, places, and events that make this state our home. Joel Sartore drove ten thousand miles in a beat-up Chevy truck to record the essence of Nebraska in the images that grace this book. Every page offers readers a chance to reminisce about their own lives and their special times in this great state. If you don’t find at least a few photographs that make you smile or remember something fondly, then you haven’t been in Nebraska long enough.

Genres: Art, Photography

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

From Wikipedia: Joel Sartore (born June 16, 1962, Ponca City, Oklahoma) is an American photographer, speaker, author, teacher, and a 20-year contributor to National Geographic magazine. Sartore grew up in Ralston, Nebraska and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in journalism. His interest in nature started in childhood, when he learned about the very last passenger pigeon from one of his mother's Time-Life picture books. He has since been chased by a wide variety of species including wolves, grizzlies, musk oxen, lions, elephants and polar bears. His first National Geographic assignments introduced him to nature photography, and also allowed him to see human impact on the environment first-hand.

In addition to the work he has done for National Geographic, Joel has contributed to Audubon Magazine, GEO, Time, Life, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and numerous book projects. Joel and his work have been the subjects of several national broadcasts including National Geographic's Explorer, the NBC Nightly News, NPR's Weekend Edition and an hour-long PBS documentary, At Close Range. He is also a contributor on the CBS Sunday Morning Show with Charles Osgood. In 2015, he had an appearance in the film Racing Extinction where he photographed the very last Rabb's fringe-limbed treefrog.

Joel Sartore is a founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP).[1] In 2012, Sartore was named a Fellow of the National Geographic Society.

Reviews

[J.D. Steens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of contemporary photos taken by a National Geographic Magazine photographer who lives in Nebraska. The introduction, titled “I’m from Nebraska,” starts with this: “I repeat this phrase several times a week….Most folks just shake their heads in disbelief, especially if they’re from the East Coast. ‘I flew over Nebraska once,’ they say. ‘It was brown and flat. I shut my window shade and slept.” These photos are this photographer’s tribute to his home state. At the end of his introduction, Sartore writes that “Someone once said a photographer who gets good pictures out of the Great Plains can make good pictures anywhere, mainly because there isn’t as much to shoot. Whoever said that didn’t live in Nebraska.”

Favorite shots:

• From the sky, a photo looking down at a B-2 (stationed at a Nebraska SAC base), looking down at a highly varied terrain; a train running through the barren badlands of northwest Nebraska.

• A two-page spread of lightning in a night sky.

• A photo of two trucks, facing in opposite directions, on a small road through a large field, with this comment: “Cows outnumber people. If you see another truck you often pull over and talk, which is probably not that much different from when the pioneers were headed out in covered wagons. You don’t see a whole lot of people out there so if you have the time to talk, you pull over and chat a little bit.” Sartore comments on one of his other pictures that “If there’s one thing to remember in farm country, it’s to build your house away from dirt roads.”

• A photo of a rancher on a horse chasing a stray cow – this was a good technique shot – blurry, conveying movement.

• A photo of a farmer, wearing a well-worn jacket, standing in front of a pile of corn with this comment from Sartore: “Farm guys tend to wear a jacket until there is literally nothing left of it. I asked this guy why he didn’t get a new jacket and all he could say was, ‘What for?’

• A photo of the “Sower on top of the Nebraska State Capitol building…is a statue of a pioneer sowing the seeds that settled the West.”

Some of his one-liners (“home-spun humor”) I found distracting. On “Kiss a Pig” contest, for example, he writes, “I like pigs a lot, but not that much.” Otherwise, this is a nice collection of photos and I especially was drawn to the obvious attachment he has to his home state.

[Kelleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovely pictures of Nebraska.

[Gwyneth Talley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great now semi-older photoessay on Nebraska. It really captures the heart of "the good life." It is a larger collection of photos that were featured in national geographic magazine November 1998. Great commentary accompanies the pictures.

[Cws]

940.5(917.5)

[Mandys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the photos, he was able to capture both the midwest feel and western expanse of Nebraska. Can he do a Kansas book too for those of us to the south? Please?!