Dear Young Photographer,
If there’s one piece of advice I can give you as you prepare to leave school and enter the “real world” it’s to move somewhere that’s not NY, LA, or DC. Think about cost of living and quality of life. Think about regions that are underserved but rich photographically, places where issues need documenting. Find people that intrigue you and communities you want to be a part of and grow with.
I’ve working in small towns all across Mississippi lately, which has allowed me to explore the state and get to know some of its photographers and artists better. And I tell you what… if I were a 22-year-old photographer graduating from J-school now, Mississippi would top of my list of places to start my career.
What a fascinating part of the country — rich in history, culture, music, and art, but suffering glaring inequalities in health care, education, income, etc… leftover from a long, enduring legacy of systemic racism. Places like this need more eyes on them, more people covering issues here, and more local journalists finding a way to get these stories told smartly and inserted into the national conversation.
There have always been photographers who have been drawn to documenting the South, and specifically Mississippi, like the FSA photographers, Baldwin Lee, Robert Frank, William Eggleston, Eudora Welty (yes, that Eudora Welty!), and more recently Carolyn Drake, Alec Soth, Matt Eich, Brandon Thibodeaux, etc…
Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. Saturday afternoon, Clarksdale, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi. Oct 1939. Retrieved from the Library of Congress
Now, turn on the playlist I’ve been listening to on my Delta drives and check out some of my favorite contemporary visual artists who live and work in Mississippi:
and painter Church Goin Mule
Thank you for the shout out, honored to be on the list. There is an abundance of talent in the South
Melissa, I need to nominate Ralph Eubanks for your list ;)
https://www.wralpheubanks.com/books