The Oxford Project

One idea I have been saving for a rainy day, perhaps for a thesis project, is to photograph every person in a small town. And, as seems to happen with many ideas, someone has already beat me to it.

Peter Feldstein's The Oxford Project features photographs of most everyone in the small town of Oxford, Iowa. Oxford is just northwest of Iowa City and currently has around 700 residents. I've got a handful of family members buried in the town cemetery, none of which appear in this book.

Feldstein takes the idea one step further, photographing the town residents twice, once in 1984 and again in 2006. Along with the pairs of photographs, the residents were asked to describe how their life had changed in the twenty-two years since they were originally photographed.

The result is a fascinating book about the identity and growth of a small town. We see some of what has changed and what has stayed the same. Some residents talk proudly about the smallest details of their lives. Others confess to how the small town atmosphere has been suffocating. But most all seem proud to be Oxford residents, for better or worse. It's especially interesting to see how people have changed over the course of two decades and how many of the children have chosen to stay and make the town their home as adults.

A small sampling of The Oxford Project is available online at this website. The book is currently available from Welcome Books.

Five: Photo books from 2009...

I didn't buy enough photo books this year to author a 'best of' list, but here are five books that I really enjoyed this past year.


William Eggleston
Paris
While Paris is unlikely to change anyone's opinion on the photography of William Eggleston, it's a solid book for anyone who may already be a fan. Along with the images, there are a few of Eggleston's drawings interspersed in the book.







Edward Hopper & Company
This book basically takes what might be my favorite painter's work and discusses his influence on some of my favorite photographers. It's a fantastic little book but sadly already out of print and demanding high prices.









Jungjin Lee
Wind
Released late in the year by Aperture, this book has served as my introduction to Lee's beautiful work. Wind features atypical, intriguing landscape photographs produced on homemade paper hand coated with a homemade emulsion.







Sarah Greenough
Looking In: The Americans
This is by far the most obsessive photobook of the year. Greenough's look at The Americans is several times larger than the book it analyzes. The highlight of the expanded edition is a look at Frank's contact sheets for the project.







Peter Kayafas
O Public Road!
Peter Kayafas' collection of American road-trip photographs has a title I wish I had thought of first. And the book comes with a song by Eef Barzelay of Clem Snide fame, bringing music and photography together in an effective way. A great concept.

Image: Meadville, Keya Paha County

When I set out to construct my first project on Nebraska, I decided that I wanted to create a sort of visual collection of all the random places I visited throughout the state. The idea was to explore this place I call home and record images of its smallest corners that may otherwise have been forgotten or left in anonymity.

The Omaha World-Herald has an article today about a new bridge being constructed across the Niobrara River in north-central Nebraska. I visited the old bridge during the summer of 2007 and captured the above photograph which will appear in the final edit of the series.

Meadville is what amounts to a ghost town on a rarely-traveled gravel road that wanders over 30 miles between Springview and Ainsworth. All that remained there was a general store and this old, one lane bridge. At the time, I wondered just how safe the wood-surfaced bridge really was.

Not safe enough, it seems.

Image: Omaha, Douglas County (Alt.)

As November draws to a close, it's time to look back at another year gone by. 2009, like most years, has went by much faster than expected. I got back on track with my work, stumbled upon some new inspiration and began to pursue my BFA in earnest.

2010 is shaping up to be a big year for me. My first solo show at the Hot Shops. Two extensive projects to develop. And the many surprises that every year we live through inevitably presents.

The above image is one of several alternate images from ninety-three for Douglas County that I captured a few weeks back. I'm on track to have the entire project finished by the opening of the show on April 30th. Just a few improvements to be made and I'll be ready to call it finished for good.