'We started out in the Obama years, sort of with the idea that, was this going to be rural America's last hurrah? And that's clearly not proven to be the case.'
"We'd spend 10-11 hours in the car, all day long, and travel from town to town. And I guess we started to see patterns develop," Jon says.Because when they upload each photo to the catalog, they don't just list it as"grocery store, North Dakota" — they assign keywords like the materials used, the institution type, the architectural elements, and words on buildings. Basically, any kind of social marker they find relevant.
"It's been interesting to have been working on this project over the course of ... so many politically divergent presidential administrations, for instance," Jon said."We started out in the Obama years, sort of with the idea that, was this going to be rural America's last hurrah? And that's clearly not proven to be the case.". Folks are leaving small towns, and cities are expanding with new homes and shops to accommodate surging populations.
"I think we can actually learn some lessons ... the stories that our photographs tell are stories of adaptive reuse." Steaming burger and frothy beer, New Auburn, MN; Steaming burger and frothy beer, New Berlin, IL Instead, they go to lengths to present a neutral image, waiting for pedestrians and cars to leave the frame and taking the photos front-on and eye level. This is an exercise in documentation, rather than an artistic endeavor.Rural Indexing ProjectJon and Zach say they've had to explain themselves to some skeptical locals over the years, but for the most part they have been welcomed.
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