I was recently in Tennessee and Kentucky for work, and I fell in love with the South. Before I left, several people told me that I'm the most New England-y person they know and that I might die on the trip due to culture shock. But when I was down there, I felt that cold, snowy, Yankee part of me soften. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the lilting accents of those around me, maybe it was the freedom of being somewhere I'd never been before, maybe it was the live music that settled itself into my bones and made me want to smoke 10,000 American Spirit cigarettes with the lead singer of the blues band. But whatever the cause, I felt looser, happier, and less wound up than I have in a long time.
It makes sense, though. Because even though I wear J.Crew sweaters with sailboats on them and have a penchant for oysters and chilled glasses of rosé, I've always loved the gritty side of things. When I was a kid I'd dig in the dirt and walk everywhere barefoot in the summer to "toughen up my feet." In college I used to drive along backcountry roads for hours, stopping to take pictures of fishing shacks and empty fields. I seek out dive bars, dingy gas stations, and general stores with creaky floorboards. There's a realness to things that are falling apart, a lack of pretension, and a complete escape from the manicured world in which I grew up. And I realize I come at it with privilege; I don't have to live in the dilapidated buildings I love to photograph. Maybe it's that sense of otherness that is so alluring.
Tennessee and Kentucky handed me the grit I crave on a silver—well, a rusted—platter. We drove by golden rows of corn, saturated green tobacco fields, and ghost-barns with blown out windows. The walls of buildings were plastered with old license plates, and gas stations advertised their beer deals on window decals slapped haphazardly across the glass. Most of the buildings we drove by were empty, relics of more prosperous times.
Here is the first batch of photos I snapped that weren't for work. These are the landscapes; I'll put up the photos of people soon after. After them, you'll find a playlist of my favorite songs to listen to very loudly in the car as you drive down Southern roads.
Never seen so many water towers in my life.
Just your casual concrete monument to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.
Great bar. Highly recommend.
And now for the music. If you don't know these songs, learn about them:
