Visions of Flint Hills featured in National Geographic
With his 22-page photo spread of the Flint Hills in National Geographic magazine set to hit the newsstands this week, photographer Jim Richardson of Lindsborg has been traveling around the state to bring his project into sharper focus.
Last week, Richardson was on the campus of Wichita State University. On Monday, he joined Governor Kathleen Sebelius in the Kansas Statehouse to unveil an exhibit of the magazine display that will travel to communities statewide throughout 2007 and into 2008.
The exhibit will be in McPherson April 16-22, and in Marion June 25-July 1.
The exhibit features more than 30 large-scale prints from the Flint Hills spread, including an eight-foot-wide multi-panel photograph of a lone Flint Hills tree standing against a backdrop of stars and the Milky Way. Titled The Flint Hills: A Kansas Treasure, the exhibit represents Richardson 's attempt to reveal the hidden secrets of the Flint Hills — including their history and their remarkable ecosystem — and confirm the region's reputation among the world's most breathtaking natural monuments.
"It's time that we stop looking beyond the borders of our state for inspiration and learn to see what has been here all along," Richardson said. "The Flint Hills should never play second fiddle to our nation's more recognized landmark landscapes."
Richardson is a veteran of more than 35 stories for National Geographic and its sister publication TRAVELER, for which he is a contributing editor. He also is known for a respected body of black and white photography about rural Kansas life. A native of Belleville, he has spent the past nine years in Lindsborg, where he operates his Small World gallery.
Richardson proposed the Flint Hills landscape story to National Geographic editors two years ago.
The traveling exhibit is sponsored by the Department of Commerce, as well as the National Geographic Society, Flint Hills Tourism Coalition, Wolfe's Camera and Epson.
The full schedule is available at www.travelks.com.
