Photographer Stuart Pilkington brings word of The 50 States Project, a special archive that 50 photographers are building this year. Each of the participants, one from each of the fifty states in the US, will produce six images during the year to represent some aspect of their state. Photographs like this one from North Dakota:
Each of the six images is on a common theme–the first three have been People, Habitat, and Landscape, with three more to be announced later in the year. Each photographer is given two months to complete the assignment, and the images are available online by theme and state. The archive is up and growing, and twitter, Flickr, and email links are available as well.
Do the math, and there will be 300 dedicated images there by the end of the year. You can see what already is up and watch the archive grow here.
Photograph of “Ice Fishing Hut on Devils Lake, North Dakota” by Dan Koeck.
Man, I am disapointed. I think the idea of the 50 states project is stellar but what a poor start. I read backgrounds on a lot of the photographers and sadly most of them aren’t even from the states they are trying to portray through photography.
I took a look at their shots anyway because maybe the outsider’s views would be enlightening, sadly no. I mainly looked at those from my home state and others I have lived in over the years and I didn’t see photos indicative of any state. Most of the shots look like generic shots that could be from anywhere and were hastily submitted before the deadline. Sad, this could have been a great project.