The Oxford Project

"In the Storytelling tradition of Studs Terkel and the photographic spirit of Mike Disfarmer, The Oxford Project tells the extraordinary true tale of a seemingly ordinary Midwestern town through the pictures and words of its residents. Equal parts art, American history, cultural anthropology, and human narrative - The Oxford Project is at once personal and universal, surprising and predictable, simple and profound.

The Project began almost twenty-five years ago, when Peter Feldstein undertook the remarkable task of photographing nearly every resident of this town, Oxford, Iowa (pop. 676). The collection of photographs that resulted is a fascinating glimpse into the ethos and character of small-town life. In those stark, full-body images Feldstein managed to capture not only the visage of rural America, but a sense of its underlying spirit."

- from the opening pages of The Oxford Project

I discovered the website for this interesting book/project via another blog. The book is more than 250 pages long, but on the website you can view quite a few of the photographs and stories of the townspeople. What I was able to read and see online was fascinating and gripping in it's own way.

I never actually grew up in a small midwestern town, but have family in rural northwestern Illinois. It definitely reminded me how different the world can seem in different places. Even though I lived in Chicago for 10 years, and now live abroad, part of who I am can be traced to small town and rural Illinois. It also reminded me of how precious small town life can be, when often it's overlooked as so common and uninteresting. I'm convinced that much of America has lost it's connection with our rural roots. And to me there is some mist of sadness about this loss as we become a more urban and global society. Something like this helps shine the light on the unique and valuable way of life that continues unnoticed in many small towns like this.

Update: I discovered this short 3-minute video on youtube about the project. Enjoy!

As an added side note, I am also currently reading the book Gilead, which is also set in a small rural town in Iowa. It's funny how these two things found their way into my life from so seemingly far away. I guess there's nothing like a little nostalgia to offset the difficulty of learning Spanish!!