Her first images were of people acting out fantasies in small American towns: beauty pageants, parades, tractor pulls, cheerleaders, horse shows, demolition derbies, square dances, fashion shows, and body-building events.

"I always shot my subjects while they were waiting to present themselves, never from the audience's perspective."

It was at Yale where she became a student of Walker Evans. "He bought one of my first photographs. He said it was 'a real heart-breaker'."

It was a portrait of a small town teenaged beauty queen. "She wasn't particularly happy, wondering where and who she was. It was all there in her body and her face."