“… the spirit of a place is a great reality.” DH Lawrence

Dawson – a work in progress

For this project I am working to create a composite portrait of a rural village in Central Illinois.

I began photographing the village and some if its residents in September 2022 and will continue at least through the end of 2023.  This particular village was important to my early childhood since my father’s family lived in and around this village. The village is surrounded by corn and soybean fields. Deep tunnel coal mining was also a major economic driver from the 1890s through the 1950s. The mines are no longer active or even visible. Nevertheless, they have a literal, physical presence beneath the village. In technical terms the entire village has been undermined.

The village’s unusually strong sense of place supports an exploration of the way place interacts with identity and memory (including forgotten memories) to form community.