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What is Indivisible: Stories of American Community?
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Indivisible is a national documentary project exploring community life in America today.
Through photographs and recorded voices, Indivisible focuses on the real-life stories of
struggle and change in twelve communities—from Delray Beach, Florida, to Ithaca, New York;
from the North Pacific Coast of Alaska to Chicago’s Southwest side; from the Rio Grande Valley
in Texas to the Yaak Valley, Montana. In these places people are patrolling streets, building
homes, reviving towns, protecting ecosystems, and otherwise finding ways to improve their
lives and surroundings. Their compelling experiences, captured through the creative lens and
on audiotape, provide the content for Indivisible, presented in a traveling museum exhibition,
a touring free postcard exhibit, a book, and this Web site. The project also includes a guide for educators, a booklet for documenting community change, and major research archives. Indivisible
is a project of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in partnership with the
Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona, and is funded by
The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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Who took the photographs and conducted the interviews for Indivisible?
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The photographs were made by highly regarded photographers whose work has been exhibited
in and collected by many of the premiere museums in the United States and abroad. The
interviews were conducted by accomplished folklorists, radio producers, and oral historians
whose work has been widely broadcast and published.
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How were these photographers and interviewers selected?
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The project co-directors, Tom Rankin of the Center for Documentary Studies and Trudy Wilner
Stack of the Center for Creative Photography, selected a diverse group to ensure a variety of
artistic styles and perspectives.
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How were the twelve communities selected?
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The project co-directors and staff members canvassed the nation to find a broad range of
communities reflecting local energy and involvement in creative problem solving. They sought
geographic and demographic diversity as well as an interesting cross section of contemporary
issues. They selected intrinsically interesting communities where local ingenuity is at work;
they did not seek twelve model communities that would necessarily serve as exemplars.
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How much autonomy did the photographers and interviewers have in
doing their work?
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The project co-directors and staff gave all photographers and interviewers an introductory
overview of Indivisible’s broad intent—to explore how individual Americans are identifying
local needs and working together to address them—but each artist was encouraged to lend
his or her unique interpretation to the representation of a community, its residents, and
existing local dynamics.
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How will the general public experience Indivisible?
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Two exhibitions, a book, and this Web site present a range of community images and voices
in formats accessible to many different audiences. The project co-directors and staff at the
Center for Documentary Studies and the Center for Creative Photography created these
components to represent the breadth and depth of the local American experience through
diverse voices and images—in which members of the public will be able to see and hear
aspects of their own experiences.
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Does Indivisible have a message to impart?
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Indivisible relies upon artistic representation to show individual action in local contexts.
As such, the project presents many perspectives and experiences rather than a single point
of view. The exhibitions, book, and Web site present the firsthand stories of people in twelve
communities who speak freely about their experiences with local engagement. Their voices
and the images of them and their surroundings, made by respected photographers working
without prescription, defy simple agendas and formulas. Consequently, each member of the audience is likely to experience Indivisible differently.
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What does this documentary project convey?
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In general, Indivisible portrays—through the original artistic contributions of leading photographers
and interviewers—the creativity, energy, and richness of local involvement in America, a largely
untold story of the many individual and combined acts that are shaping communities and ultimately
the future of the country.
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