In this conversation, Immaterial Voices host Brian O’Neill, sits down with photographer and artist Ryan Searl. Based in Illinois, Searl explores the places that seem off the beaten path, but that are not often too far from home. Across the seemingly endless horizon of industrial agriculture in the American Midwest, Searl locates the coordinates of poetic meaning, but also questions them, attentive to its many appropriations. In Searl’s multivalent landscape, we encounter, through his persistent approach, a place that evolves and to which he responds, as new issues, risks, and quiet joys unfold.

O’Neill and Searl talk about inspirations in the history of art, as well as from the Farm Security Administration photographers, independent filmmaking, ambient music, and more. Searl explains how he develops his projects and the tensions of when and how to include portraits, as well as how to engage and deepen one’s commitment to diverse communities over time. As they discuss, photobooks and zines, in particular, can offer a potential window into art and art worlds for those without formal art training and multiple publics, free from social pressures associated with traditional galleries.

Searl has an extensive bookmaking practice, working with risograph and other printing techniques. The latest project from Searl published by Immaterial Books is Primary Wires.

Notes:

Blurred Horizons Exhibit - https://www.immaterialbooks.com/fields-of-vision-2025

Ryan Searl - @ryan_ramsey

Primary Wires by Ryan Searl - https://www.immaterialbooks.com/store/p/primary-wires

South of Chicago by Tim Carpenter and Nathan Pearce - https://www.micamera.com/en/prodotto/south-of-chicago-tim-carpenter-nathan-pearce/

Democratic Vistas by Jason Lee and Tim Carpenter - https://smog-press.xyz/products/democratic-vistas

The Triggering Town - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69402/the-triggering-town

Russell Lee archive - https://lib.arizona.edu/special-collections/collections/russell-lee-photograph-collection

Analog Gallery - https://analogwines.square.site

Brian O’Neill - https://www.brianfoneill.net

Immaterial Books - https://www.immaterialbooks.com

Wyoming Toad - https://wyomingtoad.bandcamp.com/album/light-rail