The idea to compile a book of photographs celebrating the byways of southern Illinois was the brainchild of Michael LaScola. Now a Cobden (Ill.) art teacher, two years ago LaScola was a student working toward bachelor’s degrees in art education and photography at SIUC.

He suggested the project to Daniel Overturf, associate professor of photography, who agreed to incorporate it in one of his fall 2000 classes. The course, called "Small Town Documentary," draws upon and nurtures the longstanding documentary tradition of SIUC's Cinema and Photography Department.

"Each student in the class picked a small town in the region," LaScola explains in the resulting volume, One Autumn in Southern Illinois. "Their guidelines were that the town needed to be large enough to support a town governing body, but too small to have a Wal-Mart. Each student spent four months getting to know the people, the history and the personality of that town."

From the thousands of photographs taken by these students, Overturf and photography professor David Gilmore (now emeritus) selected 58 for the book, which was published in December 2001 by the Southern Illinoisan newspaper.

The image above was made by Chris Walker, an MFA candidate in photography, in Prairie du Rocher. This old farming community of French heritage, pop. 540, is located about an hour south of St. Louis, near Fort de Chartres on the Mississippi River. 
 

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