LOLLAR BRANCH (2008-2019)

After years of living in urban settings and visiting my family in their rural homes, I had no choice but to move back to my rural roots to the places I had visited as a child. Less than 10 miles from where my grandma and grandpa lived in a tiny trailer on Lollar Branch Road, in Franklin County, Missouri in a small town named St. Clair, I found myself entwined in a culture I didn’t recognize, taking part in a rural generational yo-yo of trauma that spanned my family history as far back as I could find.

The dysfunction felt tied to the land.

“These images narrate a reality I’ve lived for the past decade and beyond, they are the story of coming back to a problem.”

In 2019, while going through my image files, I realized I had created a project through impromptu documentation. Insignificant snaps and shots began to chronicle themselves into a whole that frightened me. Brought back to the landscape out of necessity, I had stayed. And became stagnant and complacent. This period in my life has been the hardest and most challenging. I’ve suffered crippling loss, struggled - all within this landscape that, though beautiful at times, is a jarring reminder of the cyclical chains of poverty, undesirable aspects of the human condition which thrive here and the urge to leave but never really being able to.

See the sample gallery index.

/// CURRENTLY SUBMITTING FOR PUBLICATION/EXHIBITION.

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