Even if the camera always lies, some photographers seem more trustworthy than others. Maybe that trust is based on a preference for the kind of stories that their pictures tell.
University of Iowa Press has recently published Down to the River: Portraits of Iowa Musicians, a collection of black and white photos taken since the late 1980s by Sandra Louise Dyas. These are pictures that could only have been made by someone who was on the scene over time and genuinely in love with the music.
The warmth in her portraits, the naturalness of even the posed publicity shots, invites you into a world she knows well. And she makes you feel at home there.
Her images have appeared in Puremusic many, many times, most notably in two interviews with Pieta Brown (in 2003 and 2007) and one with the inimitable Bo Ramsey (in 2006). Now here's a conversation with Sandy Dyas on the subject of her beautiful new book.
