Growing up in a family rooted five generations deep in photographic history I developed an appreciation for photography at an early age. Film photography was present throughout my life hanging on our walls and stacked between pages on our coffee tables. My grandfather and great-grandfather taught me to appreciate the art of making a photograph with a 4x5 camera through their published book of William Faulkner's portraits. This history, fiction, literature and photography continue to surround my practice. Influenced by photographers such as William Christenberry and Sally Mann and growing up down the street from Eggleston served to reinforce my romanticized view of the American South. I'm obsessed with place, myth, folklore and romance. These characteristics are prevalent themes throughout my work and are qualities derived as a product of my upbringing in the South. Taking into account oral history as a legitimate way of documenting lived experiences my work grounds itself in tracing the blurred lines it inevitably creates between the actual and fictional. My work seeks to investigate specific communities who have had internal or external forces play a significant role in shaping the way history is accounted for or imagined, as well as what motives give way to fabrication.
