I am a photographer from Omaha, Nebraska that has been photographing the surrounding region for more than fifteen years. For the last few years, much of my work has been focused on two main themes: a sense of place and the impermanence of rural life on the Great Plains.

My interest in the idea of place reaches back to my childhood, listening to my grandfather talk about all of the Iowa towns along U.S. Highway 6 in its heyday, places with names that I still know by heart: Marengo, Ladora, Victor, Brooklyn, Malcolm. My photographs are inspired by this life-long love of the road along with the work of artists that are inspired by a sense of place: William Christenberry, Lucinda Williams, David Plowden, Kent Haruf, John K. Samson.

While photographing what's left of downtown Concord, Nebraska, an older gentleman stopped his pickup truck to ask exactly what the hell it is that I was up to. I told him I take pictures of anything that might not be around if I return in five or ten years. He nodded his head and drove on. This is the other focus of my photographs. All of these places and buildings, no matter their current state, meant everything to someone. They were homes and businesses, towns that once prospered for decades, now left to slowly disappear as time marches on. There are countless photographs that I simply could not make again.

For more information and photographs, or to purchase a print, please visit www.josephvavak.com.