Shaw's (now gone) on old M-78, near East Lansing, MI © Michael Maurer Smith 1991

As the sun rose I found much to photograph, anything that stood up so the light would strike it—an almost audible clamor—at sunrise—houses, barns, fences and telephone poles, clusters of trees and dwellings, and like a sail at sea the occasional gleam of a grain elevator. I saw it but did not fully sense that these constructions were pathetically temporary on the vast exposed landscape. In this I found their appeal, their life enhancing poignancy.

Wright Morris (God Country and My People)

© Michael Maurer Smith 2009