Nick Simko

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2023

In 2019 I moved from urban New Mexico to rural western Kansas for a teaching position. During the years I lived in the Midwest, I went on walks around my neighborhood and photographed three subjects throughout the seasons and at different times of the day: a fortress-like church, an American flag, and a mural of a rainbow ending in the sea. I found resolve in revisiting these subjects over and over again, while also capturing the shifting light and changing sky in each photograph.

The subjects I photographed came to be emblematic of my relationship to Kansas as a queer outsider; the distant church represented the close-knit religious community while the flag in context reflected the conservative political landscape in which I was living. The mural and its idyllic sweetness, on the other hand, mirrored my personal hope to one day live and work in a place where I felt I belonged.