TITLE: The Hoosiers

In 1999, I began photographing the people of Northwest Indiana whom I met while traveling around my hometown of Munster, Indiana. I was fascinated by the fact that the type of hardworking individualistic people I knew while growing up in this pocket of Indiana were fast disappearing. There are no more Mr. Ramba's and his school for accordion players in Hammond, Indiana. The Whiting, Indiana Moose Club has long since shuttered it's doors. Bernie, whose business sold 'pet insurance' in Hammond, Indiana was eventually taken over by the pet industry chains such as Pet Smart. These were people whom I considered to be emblematic to the backbone of the blue collar industrial corridor I lived in. They worked in steel mills. They ran their own farms. They owned their own unique businesses. They were symbolic of my Midwestern values which did not include the ever encroaching Walmart and strip mall mentality. They were and are in my definition the penultimate "Hoosiers", a unique name given to individualistic natives of Indiana. I choose to make portraits that showed this dynamic character and steadfast endurance.

AUTHOR: Yvette Marie Dostatni (United States)