Capturing the Soul of Small-Town Wisconsin
By Trey Foerster
There’s a certain magic to small-town Wisconsin. It’s in the way the morning light hits the old brick storefronts, the way neighbors stop to chat on the sidewalk, the way the past lingers in the creak of a wooden screen door. These places aren’t just coordinates on a map; they’re the heartbeats of their communities — places where history isn’t just remembered but lived.
For years, local newspapers chronicled these towns, capturing everything from grand parades to everyday life at the corner diner. But as print media fades, so too does the photographic and narrative record of these communities. That’s where street photographers step in. We’re the new archivists, capturing slices of small-town life before they vanish.
But with so many local papers shutting down, who’s left to tell these stories? The risk isn’t just that we’ll forget names or dates — it’s that we’ll lose an entire visual and emotional history of small-town life. And that’s why I do what I do.
These first two volumes incorporate photographs taken in 2024.
Copies are available at LittleWolf Gallery in Iola. If you live out of the area, you can order directly by using the links below.
BTW, many of you know me by my nickname “Trey.” I have opted to use my proper first name for street photography because of its town or city angle.
Smalltown Downtown Wisconsin direct order links
Vol 1 https://www.blurb.com/b/12376279-smalltown-downtown-wisconsin