Wheat Kings: Vanishing Landmarks of the Canadian Prairies

Canadian photographer/essayist Greg McDonnell turns his attention from the railroad topics which made him justly famous (PASSING TRAINS; LOCOMOTIVES) to an institution which would have been impossible without those railways: the grain elevators by the side of the tracks. WHEAT KINGS in particular deals with the hipped-roof wooden-sided structures that were endangered in the 1990s when this book was compiled, and are almost obsolete today. The photography is so luminous, and the prose so nearly numinous, that this book modestly "coffee-table" sized book is a collector's item.

Greg McDonnell's name on this book was enough justification for me to buy a copy. I bought a couple of his train books years ago, in particular Signatures in Steel which is all about freight railroading in Canada. To my mind he is one of the few professional photographers who can't take a bad shot and Wheat Kings is full of beautifully compositions. It's his knack of framing the center of interest in such a way that you get pulled into photo and the really neat thing is its not obvious. No need for crazy angles, saturated color or other gimmicks because he captures scenes that are fascinating within themselves. On page forty-nine there's a shot of some shovels, a brush some mini posters pinned to a wooden wall, dusty floorboards, wooden upright posts and rich deep shadows. It couldn't be simpler yet I love that shot, it just works. The book is full of this kind of visual creativity. Most of the photos are exterior ones with the extraordinary angular elevators standing, rather incongruously, in the open prairie and Mcdonnell says in the text that many of those shown throughout the book have been pulled down in favor of efficient, huge concrete units. The interesting text, photos, layout all come together to make this a lovely tribute to the disappearing Canadian prairie scene and Greg McDonnell's photos couldn't be better. ***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

This is essentially a collection of very poignant photos, since many of the grain elevators will have been demolished by now. The praries will be a whole lot lonelier with their absence. The text is fairly short, but informative. If you love the prairies, you'll love this book.