UNL photojournalists travel Nebraska

"Migrant Mother," a photograph by Dorothea Lange that showed a mother struggling to survive with her three children in a lean-to in a migrant camp, became the iconic picture that symbolized the Great Depression in the 1930s. Today, our nation's economy has fallen to a historic level not seen since that traumatic period. Financial and housing markets and automakers have crumbled; unemployment has soared. This national recession has touched every American, including those who live in Nebraska.

The objective of this project is to produce photographs, audio slideshows and video that document how this economic upheaval has affected Nebraskans. We currently are traveling across Nebraska living and working out of a travel trailer. We have plans to touch on areas such as housing, ethanol, banking, ranching, farming, small towns, river towns and anywhere else our search leads us. This project is not about sad stories. Nebraska is being touted in the press as the happiest state in the union. We want to find out why. Here you will begin to find these stories. Thanks for visiting.

Photo above: Patrick Breen (left), Kyle Bruggeman, Bruce Thorson, and Clay Lomneth at the N.P. Dodge Park, at the Missouri River, Omaha, Neb., June 3, 2009.