200-4-2000; The mchenry county (IL) story [Documentary photography project]

This community-based documentary photography series was organized in 1999 by local photographer, Ann Nevills [RIP Dear Ann-1948-2015; https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/batesville/name/ann-nevills-obituary?id=12001282 ].

 I worked with Ann on this documentary project as the project coordinator as we gathered people from our home county in Illinois, McHenry County, to document the rapidly changing landscape and demographic. Located in Northern Illinois, near the Wisconsin border and situated 50 miles northwest of Chicago, McHenry County was the fasted growing county in Illinois at the turn of the 21st Century. Ann had the foresight to see that the small towns and mostly rural and farming landscape would forever be changed and so initiated the 200-4-2000; A Millennium Scrapbook project. Gathering 200 local people, we set out to photograph all aspects of county to preserve a piece of history. There was a final exhibition at the Raue Arts Center in Crystal Lake, IL and all the negatives, photographs, and other documentation now reside at the McHenry County Historical Society [https://mchenrycountyhistory.org/about-society].