Iowans as art

“I wish I could have taught in a building like this,” says Peter Feldstein of the University of Iowa’s new College of Public Health Building, which he describes as industrial and cool, yet “beautifully calculated.”

When university planners commissioned the UI alumnus and professor emeritus of photography to create artwork for the facility, he decided to “soften” the building’s interior with images of ordinary Iowans.

“My work’s always been about community in a certain sense,” says Feldstein, who photographed hundreds of his neighbors in Oxford, Iowa, for his 2008 book The Oxford Project. “Everybody in the state in some way is affected by what the college does here, so that was where I started.”

Feldstein traveled throughout the state photographing the diversity of residents. From more than 300 portraits, he selected 12 for the final installation.