Back twenty years to... Friday, March 31st, 2006. The last day home, before flying to the USA for a year. All the preparation and planning is over and done-with, and the bags are all packed. Tomorrow, it'll be time to begin...

"In all of North America, and including Alaska and Hawaii, there are approximately nineteen-and-a-half thousand 'Incorporated Cities' – around sixteen thousand of which, have populations of less than ten thousand – small towns. And there are of course, fifty States. And so this was my 'Mission'. A tour of them all, spending a week in each, and searching-out these smaller communities.

Fifty States in Fifty Weeks: "The 50-50 Project."

Ever since I was old enough to understand the basic concept of world geography, I've held an absolute fascination with, and fanaticism for, the history and progression of the United States of America. At that time – it was all about the so fabulous flag. A bright and 'snazzy' graphic – shouting all about a nation with big ideas and aspirations. Packing a very big attitude and very big guns to prove it. Big 'oomph'. On TV, there was the 'Lucy Show' and 'Ironside'. Super-markets – skyscrapers, freeways, drive-in movies and diners, soda-fountains, and giant fridges. Baseball, and American football. Enormous, super-cool cars, with absurdly big fins. It was all just so exciting and excellent. Later-on of course, it was more about 'rock-and-roll', doo-wop, driving, jiving and the 'Prom'. Bobby-sox and pony-tails. And I was absolutely itching to go see it all.

The Greatest Nation on Earth. Home of the Brave – Land of the Free. The land of Liberty and Opportunity. 'Uncle Sam's Country'. The New World. The USA. 'The States'. The 'US' is, put quite simply – 'fantastic' – fulfilling each of these definitions quite succinctly. This taken from the Oxford English Dictionary:

"1. Extraordinarily good or attractive.
2. Imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality."

George Washington, America's first President, most famously referred to the Nation's formation as: "The Great Experiment."

I had visited many of the Nations big cities – but never the small towns. Now it's time."

In Search of Small-Town America: Volume 1 is a free-of-charge Pdf digital download – available from our shop. A table of contents, the introduction, the route-map – and featuring content on the first two States travelled: New Mexico and Arizona.

Jeremy Hammond I am a British writer and photographer, and have travelled through India, China, Southeast Asia and Australia, but most extensively in North America. In the late seventies and early eighties, I worked as lighting crew, and later designer, for many top-named British bands, on tours through Europe, Japan, and the USA. I’ve worked as a cruise-ship photographer, in office and store design, database design, visual arts book publishing and as a London-based freelance photographer, specialising in interiors and architecture.