Larry Schwarm grew up on a farm in south-central Kansas, received an M.F.A. degree from the University of Kansas, and since 1988 has taught photography in the art department at Emporia State University, located in the Flint Hills of east-central Kansas, a remarkable geographical and topographical feature, where rolling hills extend for miles at a time, with no trees, fences, roads, or structures to impede them. On these hills is the largest remaining stand of the tallgrass prairie that once covered the eastern Great Plains. This land is now used for grazing, and each spring ranchers light fires to the dead remains of the last season\u27s grass, burning it off to keep back trees and weeds, while creating fertile conditions for new growth grass, whose tender shoots will nourish cattle grazed there
