The Oxford Project, photographs by Peter Feldstein, text by Stephen G. Bloom, hardcover, 264 pages, 12.8 x 10 x 1.2 inches, 5 pounds, Welcome Books, list price: $50.00
You wouldn't want to try this in, say, New York City, but when Peter Feldstein set out, in 1984, to snap portraits of every single person in his hometown of Oxford, Iowa — population 676 — it seemed like a manageable idea. It morphed into a great one more than two decades later, when Feldstein re-shot those same friends and neighbors (or as many of them as he could find) and happened onto a case study in human evolution and perseverance.
Young girls in 1984 are now grown women; grown men in '84 have now grown warier or wiser (and, in most cases, heavier). Their then-and-now portraits, shown side-by-side, tell one powerful story; in accompanying texts, their beautiful testimonials to time and life and people tell another.
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