 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com As a state abounding with broad farmlands, Illinois has depended heavily on its barns. At once imposing and humble, the barns of Illinois are much more than simply a place to store equipment and livestock. As gathering places for friends and family, they have become focal points of local communities, an enduring link between the present day and the traditions of the past. With these iconic structures as our guideposts, we find our way across the open landscape of the geography and history of the Midwest. In this magnificent new collection, renowned photographer Larry Kanfer documents the diversity of barns throughout the Prairie State, from weathered, abandoned shelters in the countryside to proudly well-preserved landmarks featured in barn tours and even Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. Kanfer presents barns from every angle, inside and out, from a distance and up close, to capture the many reasons why they fascinate, inspire, and reassure. With engaging prose, Alaina Kanfer recounts the histories of many of the barns featured, revealing each barn's unique character and tracing its distinctive imprint on the land and on people's lives. While many of the buildings continue to function within family farms for storage and shelter, others have been rescued and restored and put to a wide array of new uses, such as schools and gymnasiums in Kane and Effingham Counties, an animal rescue organization in McLean County, a winery in St. Clair County, and workshops in Sangamon and Union Counties. With more than one hundred full color photographs of dozens of barns from across the state, Barns of Illinois presents these proud emblems of the heartland as never before--a unique chronicle of a state and its evolving way of life. |
Average Customer Rating:   Wonderful evocation of Illinois' agrarian past It wasn't all that long ago that the major part of Illinois' economy was based on farming and animal husbandry. Even today, the majority of the state's land is used for agribusiness. Barns were an essential building. They housed livestock, sheltered implements, served as work centers for threshing and other activities, were social centers for some (barn dances!) and more.
Today's barns are generally industrial buildings made of steel and erected quickly with the help of a few men and machines.
Yesterday's barns were usually wooden and sometimes brick. Some, perhaps most, were utilitarian structures of simple design. Others were quirky with octagonal, round and other designs, sometimes with a purpose, other times simply mirroring an owner's individuality.
Larry Kanfer photographed 39 or so of these Illinois barns and his wife wrote a commentary on each. The barns range from almost two hundred years old - about as far back as you can go in recorded Illinois history - and some are of recent construction or the product of massive renovation. One of them is unique in that it sits in the Lincoln Park ?Zoo, less than a mile away from the soaring buildings of Chicago's Gold Coast.
Kanfer's photography is workmanlike. His views are to record the building, not create an impression for impression's sake. The barns are the stars of this show and Kanfer lets them shine.
His wife Alaina writes restrained prose describing the history of each barn. It is sober prose and doesn't try to tug at the heartstrings with false eulogies of a long past age. I was particularly struck by her commentary about round barns and how the University of Illinois was instrumental in popularizing the design. Below a beautiful two-page spread of one of these round barns, Alaina's commentary is sparse, informative and complements both the design of the barn and her husband's excellent photograph of it.
The Kanfers have done a marvelous job of memorializing the barns of Illinois. As a late winter snow blankets Northern Illinois, this is an ideal book to page through and think of the approaching Spring and a long drive through the farmland not all that far from Chicago. Maybe I'll stumble across a photogenic barn or two.
Jerry
pleased The book is a refreshing glimps of the past. We will use it to plan short vacations viewing some of these structures on site, to further discuss their history. Thank you! |  |
Select button not working? 
