ABOUT THE PROJECT
I have teamed again with photographer Daniel Overturf on this project.
Previously, Dan and I documented life along the Illinois Waterway in our book “A River Through Illinois” (2008, Southern Illinois University Press).
You can see examples and read excerpts from that book elsewhere on this website.
The Alexander County project is, as yet, untitled, but it is called “Confluences” here. In an exhibition of images and text in September, 2011 — May Gallery, Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri — the project was called “The Dead Don’t Vote in Alexander County.”
The Artists
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Gary Marx is a writer and editor, a journalist recently with The Kansas City Star. He has worked as a reporter, columnist and editor at several newspapers in the Midwest including The Southern Illinoisan and the Wabash (Indiana) Plain Dealer. His columns and stories have won numerous awards from The Illinois Press Association, Southern Illinois Editorial Association and The Associated Press. Contact: garymarx@sbcglobal.net
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Daniel Overturf is a professor and former chair of the Department of Cinema and Photography at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and has worked as a photographer and teacher in New Mexico, Kansas, Nevada, and Alberta, Canada. He is the president of the Photo Imaging Education Association. His website: danoverturf.com.
Floodwaters from the record flood, spring 2011, surround a duck hunting club near Olive Branch, Illinois.
Collected written works | Gary Marx
Portraits and stories from Alexander County
Alexander County, at the very tip of Illinois, is one of the poorest counties in the state. But it is rich in stories.
About 9,000 people live in the county — fewer than 3,000 in its largest city, Cairo — and the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers converge here.
While that location might suggest the county was well positioned for economic success, history had proved otherwise.
Prone to flooding, bypassed by rail and highways, and saddled with social strife and political corruption, the county has been for years a land neglected and abused.
Yet, there are people who make a living here and who celebrate life every day. The human spirit finds a way to survive and flourish.
The demographics are an intriguing blend of races, religions and economic/social status. Beyond the confluence of the continent’s two largest rivers, Alexander County represents a confluence of human forces, too.
