Terry Evans

Aerial photograph showing a red earth marked with a clock-like pattern.

Terry Evans, Rotational Grazing, Chase County, Kansas. 1996, chromogenic print. Gift from the Ann Meyer Rothschild Collection, Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, 2016.27.

This aerial photograph of a Kansas farm and the surrounding prairie by Terry Evans shows evidence of the evolving relationship between humans and the landscape. The stark straight lines emanating from the central octagonal structure are the result of rotational grazing, a ranching practice in which livestock are moved periodically to graze on different strips of land. Recalling a clock, these radiating geometric markings contrast with the bold shadow of the riverbed and natural topography. Time holds a wider significance in this photograph. Captured days before more than 10,000 acres in Chase County, Kansas were designated as the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, the photograph not only records past layers of natural and human development, but also looks ahead to a future where the needs of the land itself are put first.

— Felix Ramin