Emma and Ethan, 4-H members from rural Minnesota, proudly display their sheep with poise at the Blue Earth County Fair in 2016 (left). Four years later, Emma performs a jazz ballet stunt while Ethan confidently holds a discus, alluding to his participation in track and field (right). The photos, shown side by side in the new book The Unchosen Ones (MW Editions, December 2021) by photographer R.J. Kern ’00, exhibit the ways in which agricultural youths in rural America change over time.
“Photography has this peculiar way of serving as a document,” Kern says. “This is the way the camera saw it; we often yield that as fact. The pores of your skin, hair, facial changes, the clothes you were wearing, the mood you were in that day. When you create this diptych, from four years apart, your eye loves to go back and forth and see the changes.”
The book took more than six years to create, and Kern, a Minnesotan himself, drove approximately 10,000 miles to capture photographs of 65 children and teens across the state who were competing in agricultural fairs during 2016. The photos depict the subjects who did not win — hence the title of the project. “As I explored these young people’s doubts, fears, and frustrations, my heart was warmed seeing them overcome adversity and rise to a challenge.”