With clarity and attention to detail, Jeff Moerchen has captured-in more than 80 black and white photographs-the life of the Hispanic community of Ligonier, a small town in northern Indiana. These men and women have worked to make a comfortable home for themselves, trying to realize their dream of living in America, while avoiding some of the perils they might have experienced in borderlands. More than a narrow study of an immigrant population, Moerchen's evocative photo essay explores a small town as it struggles to survive.

Prizes

A photographic record of a Spanish-speaking community in a rural Indiana town

Reviews

"The mixture of complexity and simplicity, light and darkness, all provoke a series of questions which are more important than the affirmation of any answers -- and allow the viewer to momentarily live in a world that is profoundly in the heart of the nation both geographically, socially, politically, and humanly. All in all, a very successful and important body of work meriting publication and the chance to live for others for now and for time." -- Peter Turnley, author (with David Turnley) of McClellan Street (IUP, 2007) "I think Moerchen's intervention is in dialogue with the most recent voices in the field, and contributes in important ways to that discussion, both in an academic and professional setting, and in the sphere of a more general readership." -- Melissa Dinverno, Indiana University