Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project
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The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project 2015–2023

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:

Rachel Boillot
Hector Emanuel
Ross Gordon
Brittany Greeson
Curran Hatleberg

Harrison Hill
Sarah Lyon
Zed Saeed
Alyssa Schukar

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!
Soybean Harvest. Near Russellville, KY. 2019 - Bob Hower
Tobacco Workers. Carlisle Co. KY. 2015 - Bob Hower
Boatyard Workers. Near Paducah, KY. 2015 - Bob Hower
Pastor David Garrett leads the service at the Highland Avenue Free Will Baptist Church in Prestonsburg, Floyd County, Kentucky, on July 29, 2018.  ©2017 Brittany Greeson/Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project

Superintendent David Gayhart, 61, of Dorton, Ky., while underground at Cheyenne Enterprises Mining in Tram, Floyd County, Kentucky, on August 6, 2018. Gayhart has been a miner for roughly 41 years. ©2017 Brittany Greeson/Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project
Superintendent David Gayhart, 61, of Dorton, Ky., patiently watches for the inspector and for his remaining miners to come out from underground at the office of Cheyenne Mining in Tram, Floyd County, Kentucky, on August 7, 2018. Gayhart has been a miner for roughly 41 years. ©2017 Brittany Greeson/Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project
Alyssa Poston, 15, of Paintsville, Ky., stands soaked from the rain after volunteering during a produce giveaway event held at the First Church of God in Paintsville, Johnson County, Kentucky, on August 1, 2018. Dozens of people showed up to the event where tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes and watermelons were donated by regional farms. ©2017 Brittany Greeson/Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project
Portrait of Santos M. Hart Co. KY. 2018 - Harrison Hill

Fog rolls into Munfordville.  Hart Co. KY. 2018 - Harrison Hill
Hickman KY.  2017 - Sarah Lyon
Aerial view of Surface Mining. Letcher County KY. 2015 - Ted Wathen
Pine Mountain. 2015 - Ted Wathen

Trimble County Power Plant. 2019 - Ted Wathen
Evening aerial landscapes shot while flying from near Carntown, Bracken County Kentucky to Louisville Kentucky. 2019 - Ted Wathen
Miss Mountain Mushroom Queen, Irvine, KY.  2018 - Alyssa Schukar
Stored Aluminum, Owensboro KY Riverport. 2015 - Ted Wathen

Hickman KY.  2017 - Sarah Lyon
Hickman Hardware. Fulton Co. KY. 2017 - Sarah Lyon
USS City of Hickman Doorway.  Fulton Co. KY.  2017 - Sarah Lyon
E.W. Brown Generating Station, near Harrodsburg, KY.  2018 - Alyssa Schukar

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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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Ⓒ 2016–2020 Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project except where noted. All rights reserved.

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