In August I set out to make Sewanee, my sleepy little college town, the muse of a documentary photo project. I photographed everything about Sewanee that makes me feel anything, makes me ask questions, makes me ache. Despite its charming folklore and scenic views, Sewanee is not as simple nor as innocent as it seems. Markers of its many sordid histories remain tangible in both physical form and enduring memory, which prompted the question — what do we do when certainty fades? What is left? How do we go onward?
What emerged is a project about contending with stillness, a thing I personally have worked hard to avoid all my life, and its profound capacity for reconciliation and love. Situated in the context of the religious American South, this project explores what it is to coexist with tension and to befriend doubt.
