Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project
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The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project 2015–2024

Forty years after the original Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (KDPP), it has been reincorporated by Ted Wathen and Bob Hower. The goal of KDPP II is to extensively photograph again in each of Kentucky’s 120 counties. We are not so much concerned with re-photographing what was recorded forty years ago as we are with recording what is happening now.  In 2015, Hower and Wathen took several initial trips around the State to test the idea and feasibility of documenting Kentucky again, continually asking themselves: Is the idea still relevant and interesting, and is it doable? Those initial journeys lead them to conclude YES. Our concept is to look at Kentucky anew and to a hire a group of younger and more diverse photographers to work with us. They will be tasked with keeping the Project alive and reactivating it forty years from now. So far, joining Hower and Wathen are:

Carlos Bernate
Rachel Boillot
Jon Cherry
Kris Craig
Frank Döring
Hector Emanuel

Ross Gordon
Brittany Greeson
Harrison Hill
Gerry James
Amira Karaoud
Sarah Lyon

Reed Mattison
Pat McDonogh
John Nation
Julia Rendleman
Dane Rhys
Zed Saeed

John Sanderson
Alyssa Schukar
Nate Smallwood
Rob Southard
Jeff Swensen
Michael Swensen
Marvin Young

If our vision is realized, we will have been part of a photographic record of the State stretching from 1935 to 2055. This is visual history: how we lived, how we worked, how we dressed, how we relate to each other, what our world and Kentucky look like.

There is much left to be done. Will you help?

The images you see below help give a sense of where we are going in the project, but there is much yet to be done. Will you help us by contributing?

Yes, I’d like to help!
Landscape. Harlan County, KY.  2018 - Ross Gordon
Blind Musician. Harlan County, KY.  2018 - Ross Gordon
Loading Coal Barges. Union County, KY.  2018 - Bob Hower
Joshua 24:15. 2018 - Bob Hower
Landscape, near Harrodsburg, KY. 2018 - Alyssa Schukar
Disturbance at a Motel 6. Paducah, KY. 2015 - Bob Hower
David, a Burmese refugee. Warren County KY.  2017 - Zed Saeed
A young Christian refugee woman from Pakistan. Warren County, KY. 2017 - Zed Saeed
Jackson, a Refugee from Burundi. Warren County, KY. 2017 - Zed Saeed
Pregnant refugee mother from Burundi with her twins. Warren County, KY.  2017 - Zed Saeed
Andre, a Refugee from Burundi. Warren County, KY. 2017 - Zed Saeed
Forecastle Festival Crowd. Louisville, KY.  2015 -  Ted Wathen
Dancer, Hazard, KY. 2015 - Bob Hower
Ronnie Hopkins in his Boat. Kentucky Lake.  2015 – Bob Hower
Rock Quarry, Letcher County, KY.  2019 – Bob Hower
Morning Sun over Pine Mountain. Letcher County, KY.  2019 – Bob Hower
Farm Landscape, near Russellville, KY.  2019 – Bob Hower
Kudzu. Harland County, KY.  2019 – Bob Hower

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The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project is a non-profit ongoing enterprise making a contemporary visual record of Kentucky.

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The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project
1302 Willow Avenue
Louisville, Kentucky 40204

The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supports the Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Ⓒ 2016–2024 Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project except where noted. All rights reserved.

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