This portfolio of selected images is part of an ongoing project titled “In Missouri.” The body of work consists of large-format photographs made throughout Missouri on long, wandering drives that frequently end at a Wal-Mart parking lot when the light fades. There, before I bed down in the back of my truck among the RVs and tractor-trailers, I plan my route for the next day. Perhaps “plan” sounds too rigid. As I have the luxury of solitude on such explorations, the plan always remains fluid. More precisely, I pick a direction and begin to explore at first light.

The subjects and resulting images chosen to illustrate my exploration are not necessarily picturesque postcard material nor even unique to any one geographic area. I am drawn to common subjects that speak of the elemental nature of human interest one may discover anywhere. They are ubiquitous. They are banal. They are easily overlooked. But through the universal language of photography and the poetry of visual organization, these quiet landscapes, funny places, absurd things, odd buildings in familiar cities, and strange towns resonate with values one may find at once recognizable and yet enigmatic.

For the most part I would not expect nor want an image to mean the same to any two people except in the broadest terms. It is that very individuality, influenced by social and cultural backgrounds, that shapes and defines one’s perception of a photograph, gives it life, and allows it to become one’s own. I seek to convey the notion of human presence through the absence of humans being present. I use evidence of human occupation left behind to suggest the nature of the human spirit—good, bad, or indifferent…past, present, or future.

The artist Don McKenna lives with his family in Kirkwood, Missouri.
Pitch magazine awarded Best Photography Exhibition 2006 to his
exhibition of images from “In Missouri,” at the Leedy-Voulkos Art
Center in Kansas City, from which this selection is taken.