“Bison at Broken Kettle.” Amee Ellis went out with Nature Conservancy guide Scott Moats hoping to photograph the bison roaming the Loess Hills. Moats apologized for the misty weather, but Ellis was thrilled. “It created the perfect mood,” she said.
Writer: Hailey Evans
Photographer: Amee Ellis
Amee Ellis is no stranger to Midwest scenery. She grew up all over it, in Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska. Her parents are from Iowa, and she decided early on it was the last place in the world she would ever live. She spent time in Georgia, New Mexico and Oregon before meeting her husband who was from — you guessed it — the very flyover state she had tried to avoid.
Her rekindled love for photography coincided with her reintroduction to Iowa. She and her husband moved to Des Moines to be closer to his family, and it was a quest of rooting herself in her new home that prompted her to build a darkroom and reconnect with the art form she studied at Columbia College Chicago.
The photo series she calls “This Place in My Hands” came from a similar inspiration. “Making these pictures has been my way of exploring and discovering this place,” she said. “I came back to the Midwest as an adult with fresh eyeballs, willing to see things I couldn’t see when I was young.”
Ellis traveled all over the state shooting on film. Through the Iowa Prairie Network, she met farmers, ranchers, botanists, conservationists and others who guided her over the rivers and through the woods — literally, she took a lot of hikes through woods. Most of Ellis’ work is landscape photography, but in this series, viewers can spot people (or even just their shadows) interacting with their spaces.
“The people here are deep in landscape, in and of the places they inhabit,” Ellis wrote about the series. “They look closely, listen for what their eyes cannot see and discover magic in found things. They are students, teachers, biologists, naturalists, artists, writers, hunters, foragers, farmers, storytellers and tree whisperers. They are all caretakers. … When I hold this place, attentively and with care, I can feel its life buzzing, beating and vibrating along with my own. It feels ancient and sacred and worthy of protection.”
Ellis said the project wouldn’t have been possible without support from a grant from the Iowa Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts. She hopes to continue the series as she connects with more people who, like her, call this land their home.
“Jim’s Post Reads ‘1916.’” Ellis met with farmers, ranchers, botanists and conservationists who guided her through landscapes they know well. On this property, a concrete post still bears traces of the year it was placed in this spot by the owner’s great-great-grandfather. It’s easy to miss, but it hints at the enduring relationship between the land and its caretakers.
“Tom with Binoculars.” Tom Rosburg, a botanist and ecology professor at Drake University, surveys the diversity of plants at a wetland in southeast Iowa. Ellis chose to shoot this series in black and white, even when scenes like this burst with lush color. “I love how you see things differently when a photo is black and white,” she said. “It feels elemental, distilled. It breaks it down into these textures of leaves and gray tones where you can see the haze surrounding everything.”
“Rick and Young Falcon.” The late Rick Woods, a master falconer, is pictured here with one of his peregrine falcons. Woods raised and cared for falcons for decades and gave Ellis a lesson on falconry and its history in Iowa before he died in 2023. Peregrine populations were endangered for decades due to the use of the insecticide DDT, which was banned in the U.S. in 1972. Falconers like Woods have helped reintroduce the birds to the wild.
“Kevin Burning.” Kevin Lair co-directs the Westbrook Artists’ Site, a place in rural Madison County where artists highlight Iowa’s preindustrial roots by integrating art, design and natural forces into rural spaces. Controlled burning maintains the health of native prairie landscapes by mimicking natural fire cycles that were once part of the ecosystem. Some burns at Westbrook are open for public participation and education.
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