Mike Yoder, chief photographer at the Lawrence Journal-World has been documenting the Vinland Fair for the last 23 years. A self-published book and an exhibit of his fair photographs at the Lawrence Arts Center will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the fair in August.

Mike Yoder loved it from the start.

He had been a staff photographer at the Journal-World for seven months in 1984 when he was assigned to shoot at the Vinland Fair, an event he didn’t know much about.

“I thought it was a pretty unusual fair to start with,” Yoder recalls. “The fairgrounds themselves were so classy, with that great exhibition building they have. It was noncommercial. There was no big carnival, no cotton candy. There was just this simple soda pop stand with candy bars and stuff, and a food stand with homemade meals and pies.”

He had no idea he would photograph the fair for 23 consecutive years. Or that he would produce enough work to organize an exhibition for the 100th anniversary of the Vinland Fair, which will be Aug. 10-12.

But that’s what happened, and Yoder opens his exhibition, “Mike Yoder Photographs of the Vinland Fair: 1984-2005,” this week at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H. The show, with an opening reception from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, features 40 of his photographs and five historical photographs from the fair, held 15 miles southwest of Lawrence.

Yoder, who remains a Journal-World photographer, says he attended a conference in the ’80s where a speaker said it was important for an artist – and especially a photographer – to have a body of work on a particular subject over time.

“I thought an extended series on a creative body of work would say more about my style as a photographer, and it would be a more intimate look at the fair,” he says. “I could have done all kinds of subjects, but Vinland is in our backyard, and they’re warm, friendly people to be around.”

‘Standby’

The Vinland Fair, in many ways, is a snapshot of the past, bottled in the present.

There are homemade meals and ice cream, an antique tractor pull (mostly utilizing tractors still used on farms), a pet parade, farm animals and a talent show.

And, for nearly a quarter of the event’s existence, it’s meant having Yoder around taking photographs.

“Mike’s always right behind me, taking pictures,” says Nancy Helm, who organizes the pet competition on stage. “He’s the only person other than the judges that I let go up to the stage.”

She credits Yoder with helping to publicize the fair over the years.

“He’s just a standby,” Helm says. “He’s done so much for the fair.”

Old-time technique

Yoder shot photos of the fair for the Journal-World until 1987, when he started taking three days’ vacation to attend the event and take photographs.

That’s also around the time he started taking photos with a medium-format Rolleiflex camera, an older model that produces images on a 2 1/4-inch negative.

“It fit with the fair,” Yoder says, “and it slowed me down. It’s a more contemplative look at the subject. I no longer looked at peak-action photography. It was more about reflective moments, like kids watching adults throw horseshoes – just simple images.”

Shooting with the medium-format camera also was a reminder for Yoder that he was technically on vacation.

“If I wasn’t having much luck with taking photos on a particular day,” he says, “I would get a book, some pie and tea and hang out.”

‘Relaxing’ experience

Yoder’s body of work includes photos of longtime friends talking, big pumpkins, well-preserved jars of green beans, kids carrying a cat and fair-goers catching a little shade under the hot Kansas sun.

“It has been tough,” he admits. “Every year, I make a list of what I could do more of, whether it’s a detail shot of food entries or shelving. After a while, it was like anything I photographed worked.”

That made the decision of what to include in the show even more difficult, he says. Yoder has hundreds of negatives he’s taken through the years.

Though he admits he’s become a fixture of the fair, he’s tried not to get too close.

“They do (know me),” he says, “but I don’t have a lot of personal conversations with many of them. I still keep my distance as a photographer. It’s not like I’m hanging out, jollying with everybody. I’m still hanging out, watching things unfold.”

Yoder especially enjoys the laid-back atmosphere of the Vinland Fair.

“It’s not all about judging livestock or getting ribbons for produce,” he says. “They do that, but it’s really about people getting together, talking and rekindling friendships. I can tell it’s relaxing for the people down there.”

And it’s been relaxing, too, for Yoder. He intends to maintain a relationship with the fair in the future – his band, the Alferd Packer Memorial String Band has played there for two years – but he’s not sure exactly what role he’ll take.

Like many members of the Vinland community, he also worries about the future of the fair. But he remains hopeful.

“As people get older, you hear a lot of, ‘How are we going to keep this going?'” Yoder says. “But it’s been going for 100 years. There must be something keeping this going.”