Museum to Host Nov. 30 Meeting about the 2020 Kalamazoo Documentary Photo Project
The 2020 Kalamazoo Documentary Photo Project will record life in Kalamazoo during the whole year of 2020. All aspects of our life and community will be photographed by volunteer photographers for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. An introductory meeting will be held at the Museum at 2 p.m. on November 30, 2019, to explain the project to all interested parties and to enlist local photographers. Subjects will be assigned to photographers.
KALAMAZOO, Mich., Nov. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Documentary photographs show us what we take for granted today and what we took for granted in the past. Photography is a powerful tool when used to record a scene accurately and clearly. As our lives, culture, and surroundings change faster and faster, photography can preserve our time for future generations to study and enjoy.
The 2020 Kalamazoo Documentary Photo Project will record life in Kalamazoo during the whole year of 2020. All aspects of our life and community will be photographed by volunteer photographers for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. An introductory meeting will be held at the Museum at 2 p.m. on November 30, 2019, to explain the project to all interested parties and to enlist local photographers. Subjects will be assigned to photographers. The volunteer photographers will be guided by local historians and Museum staff in their efforts to capture how we live. Quarterly meetings will be held to review photographers' work for feedback by historians, Museum staff, and other interested parties.
In early 2021, KDPP-participating photographers will be asked to submit their project photos for review and acceptance. A committee of historians and photographers will choose the photographs for inclusion in the KDPP collection. Selected photos will be donated as 12-18M TIFF files on a thumb drive.
The first photo project of this type coincided with Kalamazoo's centennial in 1984 and was inspired by the "A Day in the Life…" books from Rick Smolan, the first of which was published in 1981. Professional photographer John Lacko led the project covering an entire year of life in Kalamazoo County, resulting in 21 photographers creating a little over 400 images that were printed, cataloged, and added to the Museum's collection.
The project was repeated in 1990, 2000, and 2011, and it collectively documents the city's change and progress over time. Images of everyday life are full of information, from fashion trends and economic shifts to technological advances and landscape changes. By the time of the most recent documentation project, photographs were no longer printed and submitted to the Museum for addition to the collection, but instead were submitted as files on flash drives, which amounted to just under 4,000 images for that year's project.
The Kalamazoo Valley Museum is operated by Kalamazoo Valley Community College and is governed by its Board of Trustees.
Media Contact Bill McElhone
Kalamazoo Valley Museum Director
269-373-7990, [email protected]
SOURCE Kalamazoo Valley Community College
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