"When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am."
John Prine's songs are the root of how I came to fall in love and understand the American landscape. Almost every good idea I've ever had, I can trace back to something I learned through his tender words. These photographs were taken at the Rochester Dam in Kentucky on the day after the news broke we’d lost John Prine to Covid-19. I drove 3 hours, still not knowing much about the virus and wondering if I was rolling the dice a little too hard. But I felt compelled to be at the spot he famously sang about. Being there was moving in a way I couldn’t have anticipated. Everything there reminded me of the eternal cycle this old Earth/universe is part of. Every pebble and root I saw and each birdsong I heard reminded me that energy doesn’t disappear, it changes. This was a comforting reminder in such a fraught time. Even in death, John continues to share such sweet, cosmic beauty. So these pictures here were my way of saying thanks for everything, John. Eternally.