Dan Curtis ~ Professional Personal Historian

Dawn - Then and Now (not from The Oxford Project)

Thanks to my colleague Larry Lehmer at Passing It On for alerting me to this wonderful story. In 1984 Peter Feldstein put up a handmade  sign saying he wanted to photograph everyone in the town of  Oxford, Iowa (pop. 673). He converted an abandoned storefront on Main Street into a makeshift studio.The project was a success. He capture 670 of the townsfolk. Twenty-one years later he returned to re-photograph the same people. Some had died and some had moved away but many were still living in Oxford. This time he brought a writer who told the participants they could talk about anything in their lives so long as they told “the truth”. The result is a poignant and spellbinding book, The Oxford Project, which the Philadelphia Inquirer described as: ... a still-life documentary, a narrative about change. This huge, handsome book, with its gatefold photographs, its maps and memories, offers a fascinating piece of contemporary history, a treasure of social and cultural commentary. You can read more about the Project by clicking here.

The Oxford Project made me think how we can be far more creative with the way in which we use family photos in our life story endeavors. Like The Oxford Project, you could try to find two photos of the same family member taken in the same location but separated by a significant span of time. You could then arrange these photos side by side to show the passage of years. Or you might create a photo block made up of all the photos of a family member arranged from the earliest baby pictures through to their adult years.

You could also show the changes in your community by finding an early archival photo of a particular location and then taking a picture of the same view today. Putting the photos side by side will provide a dramatic visual telling of the changes that have come about. You can find some wonderful examples here from the Then and Now group on Flickr.

Let me know what creative photo techniques  you’ve used in telling your family story. Leave a comment below and share your ideas with others.

Photo by Michael Summers

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