A Man and the Willow Tree

Thoughts about these photographs

Always there are the technical aspects of the photograph: the exposure, how the photograph is lit, the composition, and more.

The photograph above that I took during my summer 2022 residency at Jx Farms in Mississippi holds a lot to consider technically. It’s a direct positive print made in my large format camera (no film was used to make this photograph!). It’s soft focused and incredibly dark in the shadows. Julia Margaret would be proud (she once said, “What is focus and who has the right to say what focus is the legitimate focus?” I agree, Julia.).

Then there are the conceptual aspects of the photograph: what the photograph means given the time it was made, who made it, who’s in it, and whom it profits. This photograph also holds a lot conceptually. And not all of it am I — a white woman — comfortable discussing. And yet it feels important.