Beachy Amish wedding, Kalona, Iowa (2004)

This is what photographer Danny Wilcox Frazier means when he says, “Life in Iowa can be punishing.” Your livelihood and way of living, your very place on this earth, are in doubt every minute, every day, and generations have grown up with the unspoken understanding that even when you do everything right, everything exactly as you were told, things can still go wrong—too dry and corn can be lost to drought, too wet and soybeans succumb to downy mildew; sudden blizzards can literally snow cattle under, but muggy weather can spread pseudorabies through hogs.