Lewis Ableidinger: The States Project: North Dakota | LENSCRATCH

North Dakota is one of the least densely-populated states in the country with an average of eleven people for every square mile. Most of the population resides on the state’s eastern border with Minnesota, and few of these residents or visitors to the state venture out into the rest of the state which is marked with small communities and stark landscapes of open horizons. Lewis Ableidinger comes from one of these small towns — Kensal, North Dakota — and explores themes related to the challenges and joys of living in the state’s rural areas. His most recent series, Flyover Country, delves into these themes while challenging prevailing stereotypes about the region as a whole. In this project Ableidinger brings together a mix of portraits, landscapes, and interior shots that represent both the vibrancy and warmth within small Midwestern communities, as well as issues leading — in some cases — to their decline. Ableinger treats these issue with sensitivity, however, and balances photographs that reference downturn of rural towns with images of residents at work, active downtowns, and the spare beauty of the open landscapes that surround the communities. Ableidinger balances his photography with his work as a locomotive engineer on Canadian Pacific Railway, a position that immerses him into an array of Northern Plains landscapes and further deepens his knowledge of and perspective into the state’s environments.