In August 1996, in the Department of Cinema and Photography at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Professor Dan Overturf started the Small Town Documentary class with 4 undergraduate students and 2 MFA candidates. The course was begun with a simple premise that has remained the core of the class since its inception. Students select a single Illinois community, typically south of I-64, to document for the entire 4-month fall semester. The students show new images each week for in-person and online critiques. Each session holds a culminating exhibition in late November, every other year.

Since then, the class has been held in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. 91 communities in southern Illinois have been documented, some as many as three times, by 137 photographers.

Please note the class was scheduled only in the fall and every-other-year. The timing placed the class on either a gubernatorial or presidential election year. Students also photographed unique community fall festivals, homecoming games and reunions, Halloween celebrations, Veterans Day commemorations and other autumn events. The common thread for all of the students and all the towns, discussed in critiques and online, has been the opportunity to meet new people and learn about life beyond their own. The impact of reaching outside themselves, outside their own comfort zone, has had a long-lasting impact on the participants.

All the students and Professor Overturf would like to once again remind the residents of the participating towns of how much their cooperation has meant to the class and to our work. You are greatly appreciated.

We invite you to enjoy the collected work on this Flickr site.