He armed 40 8th graders with one $65 camera each, taught them how to shoot and told them to photograph their environment — things that interested them.

Two months later, Matt Mulvihill, graduate student in interdisciplinary graduate studies, has seen the result of his master’s project that weaves together sociology, English and art and design. And he is happy.

“This project has been very fulfilling,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about it for the last two years on how I’m gonna do this project, so I can’t believe that it finally happened the way I wanted it to.”

The exhibit, titled “Town and Country,” began Monday and continues through today in Gallery 181. It can also be viewed online at www.photo.iastate.edu/townandcountry.

Mulvihill’s research began with a simple question: Do children from an urban school or from a small, rural school express their world differently with a camera?

The inspiration for the project came from a similar program United Press International photographer Jim Hubbard had started, called “Shooting Back.” Hubbard had given homeless children in Washington, D.C. cameras, asking them to capture their environment on film.

“I kinda wanted to do something similar to that,” Mulvihill said. “But then I gave some sociological aspects to it and did the rural vs. urban.”

He chose Callanan Middle School in Des Moines and Colo-NESCO Middle School in Zearing as the two places from which he would pick the project’s participants. After handing out parent permission forms, Mulvihill randomly chose 20 students — 10 boys and 10 girls — from each school.

And then they were given cameras (purchased with money from various sponsors) to capture their environments, rural (Colo-NESCO) or urban (Callanan).

“They were totally psyched after I told them they could keep the camera,” Mulvihill said. “I wanted to give them something for their participation in this project.”

The children did more than just participate, however. They exceeded Mulvihill’s expectations.

“Some of the pictures that they took were just as good as I could take or as any major photographer could take,” he explained. “Some of the pictures are just awesome.”

Trusting 40 8th graders with the fate of his thesis did not come easily to Mulvihill.

“I think that’s definitely one thing that I was nervous about coming into the project,” he said.

But he didn’t have to worry.

“When I went into it, I thought [the urban school] would have more pictures to choose from, more really good pictures,” Mulvihill said. “Because I thought maybe the urban kids would be more versed in the arts and maybe with photography, and that wasn’t true at all.”

As Mulvihill found out, the results were just the opposite.

“The rural school really did a great job,” he explained. “The outdoor pictures were awesome.”

After all the rolls of film were taken, Mulvihill finally settled on 30 photographs from each school.

“There was such an abundance of pictures that I could choose from,” Mulvihill added. “It was hard for me to narrow down for the exhibit.”

He had help choosing the final photographs for the project, however. After each roll of film was finished, Mulvihill interviewed the 8th grader, asking for his or her thoughts about the meanings of the pictures.

“Some kids really opened up to me and told me about their feelings without even really knowing me,” he said. “And, of course, some kids were standoffish and didn’t tell me anything.”

And while coming to the final selections, Mulvihill found the answer to his earlier question — rural and urban children do express their worlds differently through photography.

The rural students took more outdoor shots, especially relating to farming, than did the urban children. Images of grain bins, towering barns and stretching fields populate the rural photographs.

“They get more exposed to the outdoors from the beginning of their lives and now they really respect it and they love it,” Mulvihill said.

People were the dominant subjects of the urban childrens’ photographs. The subjects dance, skateboard or pose for the camera.

“They play video games, they all have Playstations, they all have satellite or cable TV,” Mulvihill said. “They kinda make bonds with their friends more, because they are more on the inside.”

Mulvihill pulled together the final pieces of the project this past weekend, finishing up his paper and preparing for his oral exam that he will take today.

Once he gets his master’s, Mulvihill plans to continue with photography, perhaps pursuing projects similar to this one at magazines such as Time or National Geographic.

“A lot of research is done through sociology and things and I think it could be further expressed through photography,” he said. “I like celebrating something or documenting something that opens up something for people.”