You still have time to see Small Towns, Big Stories, a free exhibit documenting 75 years of the Missouri Photo Workshop, which photographs small Missouri towns annually. Peek into the changes of our landscape and culture as you view 121 images.
All photos courtesy of Missouri Photo Workshop.
A remarkable photo exhibit is closing soon, but you still have time to visit it at the State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia, through February 10. The free exhibit, Small Towns, Big Stories, documents 75 years of the Missouri Photo Workshop, which sent student photographers to small towns throughout Missouri to photograph and learn from professional photographers. See 121 images taken in 51 towns, which also document the changes in our landscape, culture, and people.
The workshop was started in 1949 by Cliff Edom, a photojournalism educator at the Missouri School of Journalism. He was inspired by documentary photography by the Farm Security Administration during the New Deal, and members of the FSA photo corps worked with Edom to create the week-long workshop for student photographers. Each student must propose and work on one photo story during the week under the guidance of visiting professional photographers and editors.
“This is Missouri’s photo album,” says Brian Kratzer, current co-director of the Missouri Photo Workshop and an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. (Incidentally, Brian took the second cover of the revived Missouri Life back in 1999).
He and former co-directors Jim Curley and David Rees curated the exhibition from a collection of photos numbering in the thousands. Rees is professor emeritus and former chair of the photojournalism faculty at the Missouri School of Journalism. Curley was inducted into the Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame and for his work as a photographer and two newspapers and as a freelancer, and he also taught at MU in the agricultural journalism program.
The Missouri Photo Workshop maintains the world’s longest continuous photographic archive of rural America, according to Brian.
The SHSMO Art Gallery at 605 Elm Street in Columbia is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4:30 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am to 2 p.m. This exhibit’s last day is February 10.
For hundreds more events, visit Missouri Life’s Event Calendar.
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