Freaks of the Heartland Scriptbook [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Freaks of the Heartland Scriptbook is the most beautiful `creepy' book on the shelves today. Steve's story (script) is rich in tension, uncertainty and compassion exquisitely matched with a photographic illustration seldom used in contemporary horror genre. The B&W publication adds a POV (point of view in script talk) that delivers, in brilliant fashion, the eerie and extra-natural.
Every Heartland Scriptbook photographic image is powerful in perspective and depth. My call-outs are: page 25 barbed wire and wildflower; page 30 of monstrous proportions; page 45 crossed sunlight; page 74 shadowy tree branches over rippling water; page 100 diptych; page 105 collage, never -to-be forgotten page 107 little hands and bird nest, and the enormous field scape on page 109 - to swim in eye-candy for the soul. Nature's freakishness is exposed and yet handled with care by Jackie's art: worn hardware, rusting land and equipment, gates - barbed and not, fields and farms, scapes and sky, enormity of night sky and trees, and roads ... paths travelled.
The images are dressed up with filters, like aqua-tinting or sepia-feel, which pops to story-life by page placement, sizing, emphasized angles, diptych and naturalist imaging, sometimes of more black than white. Jackie's photography lets the words breathe on the page, and you with it. No images are forced, and no cheesy staging is used - all Heartland and true, as true as any of Steve's horrific scripts.
Steve's script elicits pathos and love where young boys prevail over adult ignorance - a terrible thing happened in Gristlewood Valley. A place where absurdities of nature includes freaks, and those more freakish by their inability to cope with life's exceptions - in this place, feelings for one another triumph over hatred and fear. I was touched by the universal normalcy of brothers - both weird and normal, roughing it up in a big ol' tickling/scruff match. Script Chapter 1, Page Thirteen, Panel 6: Close up - "Go feed yer brother." On the way to the barn, an iron key and a slop bucket are gathered. And what seems like a lifetime later "But the way things happened is the way they happened, and all the wishing in the world won't change that."
I've enjoyed Jackie's photographic exhibits in southern Maryland , mostly Calvert County, where tobacco barns, rolling hills, and declining agrarian life pocket the landscape and lifestyle. Farms aligning the Chesapeake Bay - a veritable heartland of shadows, coves, and pens ... of barn wood and drift wood.
I am happy for her in her first break with this collaborative project with bro Steve where together a naturalist eye on the freakish bizarre fills the senses with a strong dose of rich and powerful beauty. A reading pleasure in text and visuals that I highly recommend.
Jackie's photographic talent is equally sur-real and elegant with estates-in-season, vineyards, generational heritage, family and children life, the Chesapeake Bay, sports, equine and other animals. Visit her site at www.jcnphotography.com. Submitted by Marigrace McKay