December of 25’
In October of 25’ I produced and shot an editorial photoshoot out in West Virginia, titled Southern Gothic. Southern Gothic, is an exploration of my identity and integration into East Coast city life (particularly Baltimore) as a small town Ozarker. The concepts I explored involved seeking to place my heritage in the Southern Gothic aesthetic within Urban Decay. In this photoshoot, Untitled of December 25’, I have placed “myself” as a highly stylized southern bell under the iconic “African in America” mural by Ernest Shaw on North Avenue (close to where I live). The significance of this mural, to me, signifies an uneasy transition into what all city life has to offer - and learning to unlearn biases and uncomfort-abilities about city folk. The transition being: leaving to find familiar territory, and staying to find… myself?
Note: GP is my brand (skirt made by Grey P.)
Southern Gothic
For this project, I knew that I wanted to play into the Southern Gothic aesthetic in connection to my heritage. However, being on the East Coast posed a particular set of obstacles. Through much research and thought, I decided to take a Southern Gothic editorial shoot and reinvent those concepts to fit scenes of Eastern urban decay within the Southern Gothic aesthetic.
To achieve this, I drove over four hours with some of my closest friends to a campsite out in rural West Virginia. We camped out for a few days, explored, and painted cabins to compensate for our stay. There were a lot of moving pieces and planning on my end to make that trip possible; however, it was worth it to capture the essence of rural abandonment, so close, yet so far from urban resources.