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:

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?

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