[sense of place section]
North Dakota Realized By Kevin Tobosa
North Dakota Realized is a photographic and multimedia exploration of the state’s vitality. My goal is to travel the state, photographing the people and places of North Dakota, looking for the quality that makes North Dakota unique. The success stories. Photography helps me understand a place unlike any other media. The process of seeking images to represent an idea or in this case, a place, is a very deliberate and considered act and is precisely why I chose to formalize the task. It forces me to slow down, look, listen and live in the moment. It gives me a voice to start a dialogue with the people in the western, northern, southern, and eastern parts of the state. Our website, www.northdakotarealized.com is a place in itself where the project will be documented and where anyone is welcome to come and engage in a conversation with us. With the interactive nature of the social web, we can start an ongoing dialogue like never before. North Dakota is an elemental place – our natural resources a source of power and life. The landscape is varied and unique, our people wholly honest and industrious. Yet, in my opinion, North Dakota remains one of our nation’s most underserved states when it comes to in-depth representation of the economics, the land, the people. Photographs depicting the vastness of our state, haunting scenes of abandoned farmsteads and lifeless rural towns, monopolize the image of North Dakota in the national media. North Dakota Realized is about turning the lens toward the growth and vitality of a state on the verge of becoming a national leader in domestic energy, agricultural technology, and quality of life, despite our harsh northern winters and migration of our youth from small towns to urban centers.
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