When a couple living in
Powderhorn Park moved out of the neighborhood this month, they hung wooden signs with stenciled blackbirds along the way to their new home, many blocks north. And a photographer from the
Powderhorn 365 project was there to document the endearing demarcations of their departure.
Every day since Jan. 1, 2009, someone in Powderhorn has posted a photo from the neighborhood on the Powderhorn 365 website. It's a fascinating catalog of life in this diverse south Minneapolis enclave of artists, activists and everyday people.
"I wanted to show people our neighborhood," says resident Amy Wurdock, who dreamed up the project in late 2008 when she got a digital SLR camera. Her motivation: to replace the occasionally heard refrain of "God, this place sucks" with "How cool is this?" Wurdock calls Minneapolis-based photographer
Wing Young Huie--known for his
epic
documentation of urban streets and neighborhoods--"my main
inspiration."
But the prospect of posting a photo a day was too daunting for a mother of two young children, so Wurdock looked for six others who, with her, could each take a day of the week, all year long. The result is not only online but in an impressive coffee table book collecting the team's photos from 2009, made possible through the efforts of Leonie Thomas, an intern from the
Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA). One resident sent the book to friends in Germany and Australia to persuade them to visit him, Wurdock says. (A 2010 book is possible--if another organization or foundation shows interest in contributing.)
Now the project is continuing with a new crop of seven photographers, augmented by occasional guests filling in. One of the only rules is that photos must come from within the neighborhood's boundaries--although the 2009 book includes a couple that violate that rule. No one has guessed which, says Wurdock.
Source: Amy Wurdock, Powderhorn 365
Writer: Chris Steller