Joel Sartore interview and photos in 10th volume of Plains Song Review

An interview with photographer Joel Sartore by University of Nebraska-Lincoln senior Katie Sisneros is the lead article in the 10th volume of Plains Song Review, published by the Center for Great Plains Studies at UNL.

Sisneros, a senior from Gothenburg, is editor of Plains Song Review, an interdisciplinary literary journal that explores a sense of place in the Great Plains through the writings, photography, and artwork of emerging and established writers and artists. Much of the journal features work by undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Nebraska's three campuses.

Sartore, who has traveled the world taking photographs for National Geographic Magazine, is also the author of "Photographing Your Family."

"There are a lot of really good photographers that come out of flat, desolate places because we know how to make our own fun," Sartore told Sisneros.

"Most great photographs contain three key elements: They have a background that doesn't fight the message, is fairly clean, and contributes to the picture and doesn't distract. They have nice light, beautiful subtle light. And it's something of interest."

Sartore's photograph of a sandhill crane is featured on the cover of the journal. The photograph was shot at Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville, Okla.

Jessica Northup, a senior art education major at UNL who has five photographs in the journal, won the 2008 Christine Pappas Award for Best Work by a University of Nebraska undergraduate. Pappas was the journal's founder in 1999.

Published annually by the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Plains Song Review is available for purchase in the gift shop in the Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q St. For more information, call (402) 472-3082.