Project Proposal

Rhode is the smallest state in the United States and also the place I was born and raised. Despite its small size, I do not have much knowledge about it. To discover more about my home state, I am going be putting together a non-fiction book with photographs and facts regarding the state and it’s history.
The book will begin with the origin of the state; how it was found, who and when it was founded and the inhabitants it had at that time. The photographs that will coincide with this part of the book will be of Prospect Park, which is dedicated to Roger Williams, the founder of the state, Narragansett Bay (where it was found) photographs of Narragansett where a main Indian tribe settled. The book will then move on to discuss Rhode Island’s role in the revolution and industrialization. I will photograph Slater Mill, which is where the industrial revolution began in Rhode Island. I will also photograph what is left of the cotton textile mills. I will then talk about the construction of the State House and some history of the city that surrounds it. The book would then proceed into the wars/battles in Rhode Island and the Great Depression’s impact on this particular state. For images in this section I will got to all the major forts and photograph how they look now. The end of the book will be unfinished since the growing of history of the state cannot be captured now but will leave a hopeful ending for the future.
This book will be a contrast of new and old. My pictures will obviously be current and the history will be as said in text since I can’t capture that. I see these images in black and white to give reference to history and to leave the image to speak for itself as opposed to distracting the viewer with color. I am interested in this project because I aspire to be a photojournalist and hopefully doing this project will help me get closer to that goal. What I mean by that is getting familiar with putting photos and text together and having each stand on their own.