Ian C. Bates (b.1992 in New Brunswick, NJ) is a photographic artist based in Seattle, WA. He received his BA from Ohio University. His photographs look at his curiosities of human nature in the United States. He spends his time working on editorial and commercial commissions while pursuing his own projects.
Meadowlark
Quiet is one word to describe it. Wind howls incessantly over the hills and through the long grasses. The Meadowlark once lived here, fluttering from fencepost to fencepost. Now people inhabit this place, mowing down the prairie to grow commodity crops to stay in existence. A quiet rest over this place almost as an anxiety. It is empty besides the white speckled farmhouse now empty as the inhabitants have migrated towards the bright city lights, leaving a mythical past behind.
Meadowlark is drawn from a contemporary reality, blending multiple places into a single topography. Anyone can live here, but many don’t. The weight of silence has consumed it. The pictures look toward the triumphs and struggles of Meadowlark, a place that almost exists.
To view more of Ian Bates’s work please visit his website.