40 years later, black-and-white photographs of Kansas life back on display

People, landscape and architecture: These were the facets of Kansas that three photographers examined in a black-and-white documentary photography exhibit 40 years ago at the University of Kansas.

Thanks to a special loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 63 images from the noteworthy project are on display again, this time at the Wichita Art Museum.

The “No Mountains in the Way” project began with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. James L. Enyeart got fellow photographers Terry Evans and Larry Schwarm on board, and they set out to document the state with no other restrictions beyond subject areas for each. The three photographers, ages 30 and 31 at the inception, have gone on to have considerable careers in photography and scholarship.

Patricia McDonnell, executive director of the Wichita Art Museum, described the images as moving, gorgeous and intelligent.

“I think they’ve only grown in stature, interestingly,” she said. “They capture a very vital essence of Kansas landscape and, with that, what makes us Kansans.”

Schwarm, now a distinguished professor of photography at Wichita State University, documented the Kansas landscape for “No Mountains in the Way.” He said it marked a turning point in his career.

“That’s where I found my voice,” Schwarm said. “I had never worked on one project so intensely for so long.”

He grew up on a farm but previously had not taken up that familiar vista as a subject.

Schwarm believes the key to being a good photographer is to know the subject beyond the surface. “I could see things that other people couldn’t,” he said.

Evans, now based in Chicago and known for her landscape work, took photos of Kansas people. Her subjects include three older men sitting around a table playing cards in Burns, an Amish family in Partridge and four women in a cafe, their regular gathering place. Her favorite is of four young guys in a barn.

“They’re all sweaty and standing there in this doorway,” she said. “It looks very casual. The arrangement is, I have to say, just right.”

Enyeart, who went on to a career primarily as a photo historian and now lives in New Mexico, tackled Kansas architecture with his lens.

“The longer I lived in Kansas, the more I fell in love with the nature of the architecture,” he said. “It was a vast storehouse of so many things – promises, failures, dreams and disappointments. … The architecture revealed a very simple, straightforward and indomitable spirit.”

Enyeart said each of the three photographers contributed 50 images for the initial exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas.

“We all had faith in our own individual vision,” he said. “I cannot imagine that project without each of the three parts.”

Evans and Schwarm will be at the Wichita Art Museum at 6 p.m. Oct. 29 for a panel discussion on the project.

Schwarm said he feels flattered but also a little unsettled.

“It’s an odd concept to be looked at historically,” he said. “I had no idea that it was going to be something important – something that would be in an art museum in 40 years.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 3:12 PM with the headline "40 years later, black-and-white photographs of Kansas life back on display."