The Face of the New Southern Gothic

Lest you think I am unique in my talent, let me tell you a little bit about my family. Everyone is talented. Insanely so. I have a brother who is a painter and a sculpter who actually sells his work.Both my sisters are artis as well. One can sing, play and write music, the other can sew and design like nobodies business. But both are photographers at heart. It is their true loves. Luckily they are both hugely talented even though their styles are very different. Jemimah’s style is clean, bright, true, and filled with laughter- just like her. Her work is pure joy. Judea’s style on the otherhand is Modern Southern Gothic; shadows, and sepia and story, all with a touch of light breaking through the dark. Hope in the middle of the bayou weeds.

Because Judea lives the closer than Jemimah, she was the one I wrangled into shooting all the images for A Homemade Year. Because she loves to tell stories with her images the way I like to tell them with words, it was a perfect working relationship. But because it was my crafts and parties and recipes we were shooting, the book absolutely looks 90% more like me than her. It is brighter, and and more cheery and less raw than her personal work is. She did an amazing job of telling my story through her lense and I could not be happier with the outcome.

But it was a job, telling my story, and it was not her story, which I think is perhaps even more beautiful and amazing than anything I could come up with.

Maybe someday we will work in the opposide direction. She will take her photos and then I will use words to create stories to go with them. Now wouldn’t that be a trip? I wonder if I could do them justice…