February 9 – May 6, 2007
Des Moines Art Center on Grand
Print Gallery

In 1984, photographer Peter Feldstein photographed all 670 residents in the eastern Iowa town of Oxford using a 4-x-5 camera and two quartz lights set up in a storefront. In 2005, he returned to the project, rephotographing many of the same individuals, now 21 years older. This time, he asked his subjects to pose in natural daylight, outdoors against a wall, and photographed them using a digital camera. Writer Stephen Bloom conducted interviews and distilled these conversations into the astonishing autobiographical narratives that accompany the photographs. Cumulatively, Feldstein’s photographs and Bloom’s texts present a fascinating and profoundly unnerving statement about what life does to people. This exhibition presents 16 sets of Peter Feldstein’s photographs and Bloom’s texts from The Oxford Project and was organized by Amy N. Worthen, curator of prints.

Support of this exhibition is provided by Faegre & Benson LLP.

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Gallery Talk
Amy Worthen, curator of prints
Sunday, May 6, 2 pm
FREE admission

Join Worthen as she discusses the artist, the author, and works in the exhibition.