It’s been 28 years since news and professional photographer John Gaines captured images of women working the farm for a special Hawk Eye section.

“Rural Women: Partners on the Farm,” dated Nov. 19, 1995, includes black and white photo essays by Gaines with stories by then-Hawk Eye reporter Criss Wilson, that mainly follow Primrose hog and crop farmer Janice McCarty, and Fort Madison dairy and crop farmer Sherri Hartson.

Gaines decided to feature the changing face of rural women, based on a colleague’s idea for a news story.

He spent months on the McCarty and Hartson farms, shadowing and photographing the work glove, denim and boot-wearing women feeding and chasing hogs, cleaning manure from a child’s feet and a from holding pen, doing the morning milking, and, home chores like cooking lunch and navigating toys scattered in a playroom carrying an armful of laundry.

Gaines, a self-proclaimed “city boy,” in the 1995 newspaper tab summed up his observations — “The dirty hands, manure on their pants, working day and night, year-round with little time off.”

For his art exhibit called “Women: Fabric of the Farm,” Gaines will retell the extraordinary stories of these remarkable women — with whom he has reconnected — once more through his poignant, raw, inspirational images, for Vice Night from 5-8 p.m. Friday at the Art Center of Burlington. Admission is free.

To prepare for the event, Gaines brought out the long-stored color negative film, and rescanned some of the photos.

“The new show will be in color rather than the old black and white,” he explained.

“The editorial, documentary-like nature of John’s work is an ideal fit for a subject like this. His years of experience and his mastery of the art of storytelling, and ability to authentically capture real people, in their genuine environment is always so poignant and compelling,” said Elizabeth Pappas, executive director of the Art Center.

“We’re excited to delve into this topic, and these beautiful stories Friday night,” she said.

The Vice Night show will display parts of the original Hawk Eye tab, and in addition the display will feature new photos from the Blue Knoll Dairy Farm, the last remaining dairy in Des Moines County, photos from the Des Moines County Fair, future and past, and portraits taken at the 2023 fair.

For the show’s rural theme, “I found some really cool barn wood at the Preservation Station to display the pictures,” he said.

For that spring, summer and fall of 1995, Gaines out of necessity bought his own farm boots that unbeknownst to him at the time would prove once again invaluable during the floods of 2008 and 2015.

He still owns the boots that he recently wore to take recent photos, and will display those at the Art Center.

In the middle of one night all those years ago, he quickly grabbed the boots and headed out to the Hartson farm for compelling photos captured for the assignment.

“I got a call at home and Sherri said ‘Hey, we’ve got a calf coming out. Come down if you want pictures.’ I had to race off to the barn, from Burlington to Fort Madison, and got there and they pulled the calf out, incubated it, got it good to go and so I kind of captured all of that. It’s all part of the cycle of life, and those pictures will be there,” said Gaines.

Gaines returned to Primrose and got a picture of McCarty with family members.

The McCarty’s, he said, are semi-retired, but now are helping their son on the farm.

He spoke with Hartson on the phone and also took a newer portrait of her.

“She’s not farming anymore. They got out of the dairy farming business. She lives in the family home where she grew up,” he said, noting that she now works for Lee County.

After all these years, Gaines still appreciates the experience he wrote about in a blurb in the 1995 Hawk Eye feature, with the two women who he said “were so generous with their time.”

He wanted to portray the importance of farmers to the whole state and country, and he believes the women truly helped bring that to the forefront.

“While documenting these two women throughout the spring, summer and fall I acquired an affectionate appreciation for the hard work that occurs in the rural community … I thank them for giving us a looking-glass view of their farm lives,” he said.

Friday’s event will feature music by Eric Pettit and Ed Mansheim, and beer, wine and charcuterie for sale.

The photographs also will be available for purchase.

Parking will be available in front of the Art Center. The intersection of Jefferson and Third streets is blocked, but people can enter through the main entrance on Jefferson Street or the side entrance on the south side of Third Street.on