Owensboro natives and long-time friends Lucas Wiman and Jordan T. Swift combined their talents to create a photo and poetry book titled “Summer in a Small Town” that attempts to depict the culture of their hometown and surrounding area.
Wiman is an established photographer who developed the idea while spending several months of the pandemic in Owensboro. He reached out to Swift, an up-and-coming poet, to add some poems and turn the effort into a book.
The two have known each other since middle school but their professional efforts took them in different directions after high school.
“We hadn’t seen each other since high school, but when he moved right down the road from me in Lexington, we picked up right where we left off,” Swift said. “It’s awesome to collaborate with other artists, but especially when you grew up together. This is just two kids’ perspective on their hometown and what it means to them.”
Wiman graduated from Daviess County High School in 2013 before attending Lipscomb University in Nashville for two years on a soccer scholarship. After exploring downtown Nashville for a few months, he eventually decided to purchase his first camera.
Intrigued by the profession, Wiman transferred to Georgetown College where he graduated in 2017 with a degree in Studio Art, focusing on photography methods and graphic design. He spent the next three years in Knoxville Tenn., where he dedicated most of his time to photographing chalets and cabins for the tourism industry.
As the pandemic hit, most of his photo work came to a halt, and he decided it was time to begin working on something more tangible.
“I was tired of just posting images on social media. I wanted a physical project,” he said. “I had never really gone back to Owensboro and shot photos.”
After moving back home, he began polling family and friends for ideas before transforming his dream into a reality.
“There are places I frequently visited, areas I passed when commuting to school and practice that I never knew much about or looked at in an artistic way. That’s where it started,” he said. “ I began driving the roads that I grew up on and turning down foreign ones out of curiosity.”
Wiman said he got many ideas from his dad Chet, who is a home health physical therapist that has covered all of Daviess County.
Much like Wiman, Swift developed his brand on Instagram, where he boasts more than 15,000 followers.
The young poet is also looking to transition to more tangible work, with the ultimate goal of being published through a traditional publishing house. His most recent accomplishment includes having his poem “Cairn” featured in “From Whispers to Roars,” an online literary magazine based out of Denver.
Along with publishing his debut collection “One Original Thought is Worth 100 Quotes,” he’s also been featured in Lexington Poetry Month Anthology and was recently accepted into Poetry Gauntlet. Conducted by Workhorse Writers, the gauntlet is an extensive writing workshop for poets in Lexington that supports them with their ongoing projects.
Swift was elated to begin working with Wiman on the project.
“We both wanted something from our hometown. We thought the words added more depth to the book,” Swift said. “When you’re flipping through there and see some words, it makes you want to connect the dots. The poems all went well with the pictures. It made the book something different.”
The book features rolling hills, farmland, baseball fields, downtown, the Ohio River, orchards, and much more. Their ultimate goal was to feature the area and the culture through pictures.
“I went to my grandparents and told them that they would know a lot of these places – they knew all of them, but a 10-year-old would be familiar too,” said Swift. “There isn’t much stuff out about Owensboro like this and we think it will take off – even if you’re not from Owensboro, we still think you will be able to relate.”
