Less Than 983: Small Towns of Montana

Abstract

This project (entitled Less Than 983, which refers to the population of the largest town in the series) is a photographic documentation of a selection of small towns, each with a population of less than one-thousand residents, across southern Montana. I sought to make photographs of the towns to give viewers a glimpse of an environment with which they may not be familiar. The photographs reveal the differences and similarities that arise in architecture, infrastructure, and landscape between towns. I traveled to over twenty different towns and photographed sites I found to be visually interesting and of cultural importance within the communities. The photographs were approached in both a fine art and a documentary style by being concerned with formal and aesthetic qualities, unique subject matter of possible historical relevance, and compositions that describe and represent each place accurately. The project has taken a finalized form of a book, a popular format for documentary photography and fine art alike, in which nineteen towns are each represented by about a half-dozen photographs that provide a sense of place that piques the viewers' interest in the charming, and often quirky, qualities of small town life.