After years of photographing abandoned farmhouses, calendar creator releases final edition

As Abby Bischoff’s family prepared to move from the house where she and her siblings grew up, many conversations centered on holiday meals, family gatherings and everyday life.

Soon, that house would be vacant, with nothing but echoes of love, laughter and tears filling the rooms.

Bischoff, who grew up on a farm near Huron, was familiar with the skeletal remains of rural houses, barns and sheds. Then employed in politics, she saw them often on her trips to and from her home in Sioux Falls.

“I’d reflect on the hold houses have on people,” she said. “I’d think about if those families had the same conversations.”

One day, likely in 2012, she stopped to take a picture of an abandoned house. Then another. And another. And another.

In October 2013, Bischoff started sharing her pictures on a Facebook page, Abandoned: South Dakota, that eventually garnered more than 30,000 fans. And that fall, she offered a calendar that featured 13 of her photos: one on the cover and 12 inside.

Every fall since then, Bischoff has, as she puts it, turned herself into a retail outlet every holiday season. Her calendar for 2023 can be preordered now.

But it will be her last. Changes in her personal life — Bischoff married Chuck Beck this fall — and a desire to focus on a bigger project led to the decision to halt the calendars.

Part of it may be emotional. Immersed in her new life, she doesn’t feel the same sense of aloneness that may have drawn her to the lonely houses. Part of it is simply supply. Bischoff has a library of more than 300 homes she has photographed. The only counties that remain unphotographed are Hughes, which includes Pierre, and Stanley, which includes Fort Pierre.

“I felt like maybe I’ve captured as many as I could without illegally trespassing on the property,” Bischoff said.

That was one of the unofficial rules she set for herself. Bischoff always was intentional about remaining in the public right-of-way when photographing the houses. If a curious neighbor would stop to ask questions, she could pull out a calendar to show her good intentions.

It isn’t what people might have left behind in the empty houses that intrigues her — although once she noticed a doll in the window of a house she was photographing, and it made the hair on her arms stand up.

It’s the beauty of the South Dakota prairie.

“Part of the project that really was compelling to me is not only the house but the land the house was on,” Bischoff said. “Knowing a lot were farmhouses, I wanted to show that as well, the natural beauty as well as the manmade structure that was there.”

Bischoff’s photos capture the memorable places that anyone who has traveled South Dakota’s back roads has noticed, said Darin Kholbi, co-owner of Coffea Roasterie.

“Her photos captured those places and sense of place so well,” he said. “There’s a sense of wonder because it does sort of transport you through time. You can’t help but think what that place once was and what happened to those people. There’s a strong narrative aspect. It draws you in; there’s such a story connected to it.”

Kholbi recalls the display of Abandoned: South Dakota photos that were hung on the Coffea coffee shops’ walls in 2014.

“People really responded to them and loved them,” he said. “What struck me about the Abandoned series is she was able to put her skills as a photographer together with a really interesting concept that people could really relate to.”

Some of the structures Bischoff photographed already have vanished. One house on her route to Huron collapsed in on itself. Another one stood in a pasture that was turned into cropland. After one year of being surrounded by corn, it was torn down.

“I teared up about it,” Bischoff said. “There’s a song I really love, ‘Tear Down the House,’ by a band called the Avett Brothers. I always kind of cue the song up when I’m feeling nostalgic. It talks about what people go through.”

While other projects have been suggested to Bischoff — barns, maybe, or outhouses — she has a different project in mind for the present. She wants to compile Abandoned: South Dakota photos into a coffee table book. Her mother, Janelle Bischoff, is a talented watercolor artist, and she would draw maps for the books. About a dozen people have recognized Abandoned: South Dakota houses and shared stories with Bischoff; she wants to weave those into the book’s text.

No matter what happens, Bischoff will never forget the opportunities Abandoned: South Dakota presented: the people she met, the connections she made with former South Dakotans, the book of poetry that was created with her photos as the inspiration for the words.

“It was so much more than I thought it would be,” she said.

Oh, and the old Bischoff family home that, in part, sparked this project? Turns out, it has lots of life left in it.

“The house wasn’t bad; the foundation was bad,” Bischoff said. “Mom put an ad on Craigslist that said it was free if you want it. A couple saw the ad, and it got moved about 8 miles as the crow flies. … It’s living another life as a home for somebody else.”

Abandoned: South Dakota calendars

To preorder the 2023 Abandoned: South Dakota calendar, visit Abby Bischoff’s website, AbandonedSD.com. Calendars also are available at Dart Boutique, Lewis Drug and Zandbroz Variety.