The Oxford Project | Stephen G. Bloom | A Project in Life ... in many ways, perhaps even our own ...

book: The Oxford Project | Stephen G. Bloom

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The Oxford Project

	The Oxford Project Stephen G. Bloom Welcome Books, 2008 - 264 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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In 1984, photographer Peter Feldstein set out to photograph every single resident of his town, Oxford, Iowa (pop. 676). He converted an abandoned storefront on Main Street into a makeshift studio and posted fliers inviting people to stop by. At first they trickled in slowly, but in the end, nearly all of Oxford stood before Feldstein's lens. Twenty years later, Feldstein decided to do it again. Only this time he invited writer Stephen G. Bloom to join him, and together they went in search of the same Oxford residents Feldstein had originally shot two decades earlier. Some had moved. Most had stayed. Others had passed away. All were marked by the passage of time.

In a place like Oxford, not only does everyone know everyone else, but also everyone else's brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, lovers, secrets, failures, dreams, and favorite pot luck recipes. This intricate web of human connections between neighbors friends, and family, is the mainstay of small town American life, a disappearing culture that is unforgettably captured in Feldstein's candid black-and-white portraiture and Bloom's astonishing rural storytelling.

Meet the town auctioneer who fell in love with his wife in high school while ice-skating together on local ponds; his wife who recalls the dress she wore as his prom date over fifty years ago; a retired buck skinner who started a gospel church and awaits the rapture in 2028; the donut baker at the Depot who went from having to be weighed on a livestock scale to losing over 150 pounds with the support of all of Oxford; a twenty-one-year-old man photographed in 1984 as an infant in his father's arms, who has now survived both of his parents due to tragedy and illness.

Considered side-by-side, the portraits reveal the inevitable transformations of aging: wider waistlines, wrinkled skin, eyeglasses, and bowed backs. Babies and children have instantly sprouted into young nurses, truck drivers, teachers, and rodeo riders, become Buddhists, racists, democrats, and drug addicts. The courses of lives have been irrevocably altered by deaths, births, marriages, and divorces. Some have lost God--others have found Him. But there are also those for whom it appears time has almost stood still. Kevin Somerville looks eerily identical in his 1984 and 2004 portraits, right down to his worn overalls, shaggy mane, and pale sunglasses. Only the graying of his lumberjack beard gives away the years that have passed.

Face after face, story after story, what quietly emerges is a living composite of a quintessential Midwestern community, told through the words and images of its residents--then and now. In a town where newcomers are recognized by the sound of an
unfamiliar engine idle, The Oxford Project invites you to discover the unexpected details, the heartbreak, and the reality of lives lived on the fringe of our urban culture.

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A Project in Life ... in many ways, perhaps even our own ...

It is amazing that in 1984 all of the residents (except 6) of this small town were photographed and that now they have been re-photographed in the same way PLUS have been interviewed with an inviting, open-ended, "Tell me about your life ..."

The history. The changes. The values. The life. The love. The loss. The realism. The dreams. The regrets. The celebrations. Wow.

In our culture, we tend to live too much for today and this book is a subtle way to contemplate our own lives from a bigger-picture perspective, with a much broader and more meaningful stroke than the immediate.

Moments and decisions -- the cornerstones of our lives. They are ours to experience as well as ours to make. I've enjoyed the transparent view into Oxford and how it allows us to take a similar view into our own lives ... 20 years from now, how will I answer? :)

Bon Appetit!

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