Galleries > Invisible Valley

THE RED RIVER VALLEY OF THE NORTH is a rich agricultural region that buffers the border between Minnesota and North Dakota. The landscape is so broad and flat, and the descent into the valley so gradual, that, upon arrival, a person has no sensation of being in a valley at all.

In June, 2016, I spent two weeks photographing this region as a guest of the North Dakota Museum of Art’s McCanna House Artist-in-Residence Program. This was a homecoming of sorts; I had lived in Crookston, Minnesota for several years after I graduated from art school. “Invisible Valley” presents a selection from the hundreds of photos I gathered as I explored the region’s towns, fields, and wild places both in the Valley and nearby. The resulting photos reveal my persistent fascination with how people establish their place in the environment. What is being given attention and what is being neglected? What belongs, and what is out-of-place? What is in the front yard, and—more interestingly—what is out back? Behind the subject matter lie my abiding interests in the formal qualities of texture, composition, and light.

Polymer photogravure intaglio print of grain bins and elevator in McCanna, North Dakota
Polymer Photogravure
10.25 x 14.25 inches
2020
Surface Condition
Polymer Photogravure
7.325 x 9.75 inches
2017
Grain elevators at railroad siding in North Dakota. One-plate polymer photogravure print on pescia paper by John Pearson.
Polymer Photogravure
7.75 x 10.375 inches
2018
On a summer day a snowplow attachment sits in front of garage buildings in Niagara, North Dakota. One-plate polymer photogravure print on pescia paper by John Pearson.
Polymer Photogravure
10.75 x 14.25 inches
2017
A new pole barn next to a dilapidated frame building in Niagara, North Dakota. One-plate polymer photogravure print on pescia paper by John Pearson.
Polymer Photogravure
10.6 x 14.1 inches
2017
Polymer photogravure intaglio print of a man and young boy walking towards grain elevators in Larimore, North Dakota.
Polymer Photogravure
7.625 x 10.125 inches
2020
Elevator rising behind an office/home in Edinburg, North Dakota. One-plate polymer photogravure print on pescia paper by John Pearson.
Polymer Photogravure
8 x 10.375 inches
2018
Polymer photogravure intaglio print of grain operation in a small North Dakota town.
Polymer Photogravure
10.375 x 14.75 inches
2020
A natural gas tank and a civil defense siren in a small town in the Red River Valley of the North. One-plate polymer photogravure print on pescia paper by John Pearson.
Polymer Photogravure
10.2 x 13.6 inches
2018
Two sides of a small utility structure near Larimore, ND, are shown next to each other. Polymer photogravure intaglio print by John Pearson. other
Polymer Photogravure
7.5 x 21.375 inches
2018
Storefront in Emerado, North Dakota. Two-plate polymer photogravure by John Pearson printed on pescia paper.
Polymer Photogravure
7.7 x 21.9 inches
2017
A 19th c. jail preserved in Niagara, North Dakota, is a lattice metal box. Two-plate polymer photogravure print on pescia paper by John Pearson.
Polymer Photogravure
18.9 x 13.4 inches
2017
Pole Barn
Polymer Photogravure
15 x 17.3 inches
2017
A cultivator in a field in McCanna, North Dakota. Two-plate polymer photogravure by John Pearson printed on pescia paper.
Polymer Photogravure
10.375 x 14.125 inches
2017
North Dakota barn carrying graffiti symbols: swastika, yin-yan, and pentangle. One-plate polymer photogravure print on pescia paper by John Pearson.
Polymer Photogravure
11.7 x 14.2 inches
2017
Basketball court near a railroad siding and elevator in Oslo, Minnesota. One-plate polymer photogravure print on pescia paper by John Pearson.
Polymer Photogravure
10.6 x 14.125 inches
2017
Spruce Trees along the edge of a field in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. A polymer photogravure print by John Pearson on pescia paper.
Polymer Photogravure
10.375 x 13.75 inches
2018
I Am the Grass
Polymer Photogravure
10.25 x 7.5 in.
2018
Two-plate polymer photogravure by John Pearson printed on pescia paper.
Polymer Photogravure
6. 4 x 7.5 inches
2017
A windbreak along a field in McCanna, North Dakota. Two-plate polymer photogravure by John Pearson printed on pescia paper.
Polymer Photogravure
7.4 x 21.5 inches
2017
June sunset on the prairie outside McCanna, North Dakota. A polymer photogravure image on pescia paper.
Polymer Photogravure
10.25 x 14.75 inches
2018
A look behind a false-fronted building on the main street of a small town in North Dakota.
Polymer Photogravure
7.4 x 10.3 inches
2019
A horizontal North Dakota landscape of a farm buidling, county road, and fields. Three-plate Polymer photogravure print by John Pearson.
Polymer Photogravure
6 x 24.5 inches
2020
Prairie Home
Polymer Photogravure
6.9 x 10.375 in
2018
Polymer photogravure intaglio print by John Pearson of a residential side yard in a small town in North Dakota.
10.25 x 14.875 inches
2020
In a small town in North Dakota, a stucco shed wall is dappled by shade in this polymer photogravure print by John Pearson.
Polymer Photogravure
7.3 x 9.8 inches
2019
Side Garden
Polymer Photogravure
10.625 x 15.125 inches
2016
Polymer photogravure print "Northern Air" by John Pearson
Polymer Photogravure
10.25 x 15 inches
2020
Prospect and Refuge
Polymer Photogravure
10.7 x 15 inches
2016
An overgrown sidewalk leading to the mostly obscured front door of an old house in a small town in North Dakota
Polymer Photogravure
13.75 x 10.3 inches
2017
Arboretum Walk
Polymer Photogravure
10.7 x 15 inches
2017