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Feb 01, 2009

Ken rated it:

In 1984, photographer Peter Feldstein decided to photograph all 676 residents of his adopted home town of Oxford, Iowa. Twenty years later, he continued the project by phtographing as many residents from the initial sessions as possible. The book shows both photographs, and for many of the residents, Stephen G. Bloom has written brief first-person narratives drawn from interviews.

This is a fascinating book. The stark black and white portraits give you an instant sense of the perso More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 12, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

This coffee table sized book that features black and white photographs of the citizens of a small Iowa town taken over 20 years apart is a serious showstopper. I've been pouring over it for almost a month, reading and re-reading sections and looking into the honest, hardworking faces of these people that I now feel like I know. Each set of photos is accompanied by a short bio, written by photo's subject. Some are funny, some are sad or regretful, but my favorite would have to be this quote from More...

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Apr 04, 2009

elissa rated it:

This big coffetable book was absolutely fascinating. It's an art project by a self-proclaimed obsessive (he's counted things all of his life). An art teacher at the U of Iowa moved to a small town near the university in 1984 and took pictures of everybody in the town, partly as a way to get to know all of the people there better. 20 years later, he took pictures of as many of the same people as he could, and had them tell a little bit about their lives. You get a very clear picture of life i More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 25, 2009

Jenna rated it:

I really loved this book. I loved everything about it. The idea behind it, the people in it and the stories they each told. I think everytown should have something like it. Amazing.
I used to visit Oxford when I lived with my friend Angie at the Kent Park campground and thought it was a really nice little town. If I were forced to live near Iowa City again I think I will pick to live in Oxford because of this book.

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Oct 13, 2008

oriana rated it:

This book is very cool. A guy went to a tiny town in Ohio(?) in the eighties and did portraits of everyone. He combined those with short interviews, and did the whole thing as a touring museum exhibit.

So now, twenty-five years later, same guy goes back to same town, to locate as many of the original people as he can. He re-photographs and re-interviews everyone, and I think it'll be a museum thing again, as well as this book.

Yeah, so it's really really neat. The pictures are More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 22, 2008

Samantha rated it:

A fascinating look at the lives of small town residents and how they have changed over 20 years. Many of them have tragic stories to tell. An engrossing book for anyone who's nosy about other people's lives, like I am. Heh.

Glad I don't live there though. As one might expect, ignorance is commonplace. Still, interesting to see how all these lives have entertwined in various ways.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 06, 2009

Barky rated it:

Peter Feldstein started the Oxford photography project back in the 1980s – he took photos of all the citizens of the town of Oxford, Iowa. He recently returned to Oxford to re-photograph everyone he could find (he also spent time tracking down others who had moved away) with Stephen Bloom, who helped record and transcribe the stories of what had been happening in their lives since they’d last had their photographs taken. The resulting collection of photos and stories is gorgeous and fascinatin More...

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Oct 24, 2011

Luanne rated it:

I originally thought I would feature The Oxford Project in my regular Over the Counter post on Thursdays. But as I started glancing through it, I knew I wouldn't be able to stop, so I signed it out and took it home. And I was right - I sat and read it in one sitting.

What is The Oxford Project? Photographer Peter Feldstein moved to tiny Oxford, Iowa in 1965. In 1984, he had the idea to photograph every person living in Oxford. (population 693) And twenty years later he photographed them More...

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Feb 22, 2011

Michele rated it:

This book is just so fascinating! [return][return]In 1984, Peter Feldstein decided to photograph everyone in his town of Oxford, Iowa. He thought it would be interesting and over time was able to get all 676 people photographed. He took all full-length photos with equal lights on each side. These pictures were not great artistically. What was interesting was the variety of the townsfolk, their similarities and differences. He had a few gallery shows at the time. [return][return]In 2005, Mr. Feld More...

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Dec 13, 2009

Becky rated it:

I loved this book. I poured over it for hours. For an urban dweller, I have spent more than a little time in small-town Iowa—so that probably accounts for part of my fascination. But I think this book would have intrigued me anyway.

In 1984 Peter Feldstein, a U. of Iowa art professor, decided to photograph all the residents of the town of Oxford, Iowa (pop. 693). Most Oxford residents—young and old--eventually showed up in Feldstein’s studio to have their individual portraits taken. E More...

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May 21, 2009

Anna rated it:

The cover of The Oxford Project—a hologram of a little boy and the middle-aged looking man he grows up to be reveals the nature of the photographs in the book. In 1984, Peter Feldstein, a photography professor at the University of Iowa and resident of Oxford, Iowa, sent flyers and letters to his six hundred and seventy-six neighbors, asking to photograph them “as you are, not as you might look in your Sunday best” and display their portraits downtown as part of a project for the “Iowa Arts Coun More...

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Apr 19, 2009

K. rated it:

This book is sheer joy, a great project beautifully executed. Here are pictures of all the residents of a small town in Iowa. The first set of photographs was made in 1984, and the second set was made (of the same people) in 2005-2007. In 2005, the photographer took a writer with him who interviewed all these people about their lives, resulting in a first-person monolog for each one of them. So you get a closeup of a group of people aging in place, living as we all do, each one completely differ More...

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Dec 29, 2009

Ningerbil rated it:

If I absolutely had to pick a favorite book this year, this is it. The concept is so neat! The Oxford Project is a history record/time capsule of a small town in Iowa. In 1984, photographer Peter Feldstein decided to photograph the residents of Oxford. Nothing posed, just had them stand against a plain background. In 2005, he revisted this project, again taking pictures of as many of the residents he could (some had died, and some had moved). Stephen Bloom conducted interviews with the residents More...

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Dec 07, 2008

Becky rated it:

I wouldn't say that this book was amazing, but the premise of it is quite intriguing. I first heard about it on NPR's list of best books in 2008 and checked out a copy from the library, then thumbed through and read the whole book in one evening. I almost want to take a little vacation to Oxford, Iowa to see how accurate this book's depiction is. :)

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Dec 26, 2008

Betsy rated it:

Such a fascinating read/look! I became really involved with all the Oxford residents and even read some of the essay interviews to other people as some of them were so...out there, especially the buckskinner father who found religion and became a fundamentalist preacher speaking in tongues and his daughter, the ex-pole dancer, who also found religion and moved back to Oxford to home-school her children in a good Christian curriculum. In some ways many of the residents were quite homogenous but t More...

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Dec 18, 2008

Amanda rated it:

A joint effort of two University of Iowa professors, The Oxford Project is a photo-documentary of the lives of every resident in the small Iowa town of Oxford. (I grew up not far from this town.) The book juxtaposes black-and-white photographs of Oxford’s citizens in 1984, when photographer Peter Feldstein first visited the town, with images of the same people from the present day. The picture sets are accompanied by first-person narratives in which the residents discuss their hopes, dreams, sec More...

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Jan 13, 2009

Eugene rated it:

reminded me of this show i saw a few years ago where the photographer--hans-peter feldmann--took a photo of someone from ages 1 to 100 (not the same person). here's a bit about that:
http://ps1.org/exhibitions/view/83
and some more:
http://zoltanjokay.de/zoltanblog/2007/12...

...i really liked the feldmann show when i saw it and i thought the Oxford Project, when i read a review of it, would be a similar simple, brutal, kinda profound use of photographs to show the passa More...

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Jan 12, 2009

Dana rated it:

I wanted to read this book for a couple of different reasons--mainly because I spent the first 12 years of my life in an Iowa town just a little smaller than Oxford, and Stephen Bloom was my adviser in college; his wife was my reporting instructor. I've also wanted to read his book about Postville (Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America), another small Iowa town that continues to experience turmoil and controversy. Some of the stories in The Oxford Project felt familiar to me, but m More...

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Aug 26, 2009

Alison rated it:

Peter Feldstein, a professor at the University of Iowa, set up his camera in his adopted hometown of Oxford, Iowa in 1984 and asked all of the residents to come in and get a picture taken. Six hundred seventy did. Feldstein had a small showing, then threw all the photos in a cabinet and forgot about them. In 2005, he decided to track down all of his subjects and photograph them again, this time with the help of Stephen Bloom to take down the residents' stories and put them all in this giant book More...

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Feb 03, 2009

Jen rated it:

If you grew up, currently live or ever wondered what it is like to live in a small town, The Oxford Project gives you a glimpse into that world. This book was like a cross between family reunion meets 20 year high school class reunion. Most people are related by blood, marriage, interests or jobs, but seeing their change in the 30 year span as well as reading them reflect back on what their life has been like was like being part of their town or family.

Regardless of who you are, More...

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Dec 25, 2008

Amy rated it:

This is exactly what I wanted to read over Christmas and luckily my co-worker, Jean, read my mind and happened to be returning this to the library.
This is a series of photos taken in 1984 of every person living in the small town of Oxford, Iowa. Their pictures were taken again in 2008. Some of the people give narratives about who they are and what they have been up to since 1984. Needless to say this book was engrossing. By no means is it a picture of America (the population is very homoge More...

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Jan 22, 2010

Alyce (At Home With Books) rated it:

The Oxford Project; with its photos of the residents of Oxford, Iowa first in 1984 and then twenty years later, contains within its pages a unique way to look at the population of a small town in America. The first set of photos were taken without writing down the people's stories, it was more of a photo-mosaic of the town. When the second group of photos was taken twenty years later there was an interviewer present to write down whatever the people had to say.

The updated photo More...

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Oct 10, 2010

Mona rated it:

In 1984, photographer Peter Feldstein completed a project to photograph almost every resident of the small town of Oxford, located approximately sixteen miles away from the University of Iowa. Feldstein sent out a letter asking residents to come dressed as they usually were, not "as you might look in your Sunday best" and residents followed his directions. The photographs were displayed in an exhibit in Oxford's American Legion Hall, and then Feldstein stashed the negatives in some fil More...

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Feb 27, 2011

Kim rated it:

A book of photographs and stories about one of Iowa's small towns, co-authored by one of my professors at University of Iowa. Really cool. Photos were taken of virtually every citizen of Oxford, IA in 1984, and then again 25 years later. The photos are side by side and often paired with personal narratives from the subject. I read it all in one sitting. It would have been cool to see a diagram of how everyone in the town is related (because everyone in a small town is related one way or another) More...

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Feb 15, 2009

Janell rated it:

Very interesting book! One of Oxford, Iowa's residents (a photographer) took it upon himself in 1984 to photograph every one of its 671 residents. Then, two decades later, he photographed them again and chronicled the photos into a book.
However, as interesting as the photographs, are the soliloquies that the Oxford residents gave while being photographed. It made the photographs come to life as I read about the hopes, dreams, interests, and quirks of many. Fascinating!

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Oct 21, 2010

Katherine rated it:

What did I think? I think this Wisconsin Death Trip-ish book, while very interesting, hits a little too close to home. Okay, my small Iowa hometown might have been slightly bigger than Oxford, but the UI sweatshirts, eighties hair - in both the pictures from 1984 and 2008 - and dreams of driving truck are still familiar.

And was it just me, or did every essay written by a woman who had been young in the early eighties include the phrase, "I was very promiscuous"?

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Dec 22, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

This is the best coffee table book. The author embarked on a project in 1984 when he set out to photograph the residents of his very small town in Iowa. He set a camera up on the street and people were very willing to participate. He did the same thing with the same people in 2008 and this book exhibits the photos. Amazing to see the differences in the pictures. Also contains the people' life stories. What they have been doing since 1984. I really love this.

www.oxfordproject.com

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Feb 16, 2010

Beth rated it:

So simple, yet so captivating, The Oxford Project depicts rural Midwestern life about as authentically as I imagine can be done.

The even weight given to residents of all stripes recasts the way things often play out the rest of their lives, and the editors did a beautiful job of letting Oxford's residents tell their own tales. Occasionally, they put a little too much emphasis on details that shine well enough on their own, but on the whole, I loved it.

As certain men oft More...

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Nov 21, 2008

lia rated it:

In 1985 a man decided to photograph every single person in the very small town of Oxford, Iowa, around 650 people.. He slipped a note under every door, and set up shop in a storefront with a sheet over the window. Then, he went back and did it again, between 2005 and 2006.--this time with someone to record their stories. The photos are displayed side by side, with stories about the people, their children, their lives..
This book is absolutely amazing. This project is amazing.
Just a fe More...

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Mar 16, 2009

Nathan rated it:

Interesting. I became engrossed in the little stories, flipping back and forth to pick out the connections between people. I'm also amazed that given the chance to make some kind of comment, some kind of permanent record, those were the things these people chose to say. (Obviously their comments were edited... but some of the things people said would never occur to me, knowing that the words would eventually make it into a book.)

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