I have been photographing Nebraska for 20 years. I strike out alone for a day or a week, my direction chosen by intuition. Sometimes I am compelled by the names of the places I have read about - Blue Hill, Weeping Water, Scalp Creek. Sometimes a story or a piece of folklore about a place intrigues me. Or maybe the ethnic connection is irresistible - the Bohemian Alps, the Russian Bottoms or the Czech Capital of Nebraska. I read all the local history books I can lay my hands on.
I have a briefcase crammed with topographical maps, state road maps, county road maps, maps drawn for me on matchbook covers and maps I make myself when I find roads and landmarks unidentified elsewhere. I make notes in the margins of the maps when I find a place that I want to see again - in another season, at another time of day - when the slant of light will be right.
I try to find images that are distillations of the places and the people who have lived there.
Jean Lewis, Lincoln Nebraska
