Aline Smithson and her colleagues at the exceptionally fine Lenscratch blog have continued their exploration of these various (not-so-united, perhaps) United States in the States Project.
This project seems invariably to identify a single state, then identify an overall curator who assembles 6 or so photographers to share portfolios of their work.
The goal of the States Project, according to Lenscratch, is to provide a way of organizing a survey of contemporary photography that seeks to document the "countless stories [yet] to be told, new and innovative ways of working to explore, and photographic voices yet to be heard."
What binds these portfolios together seems more to be who knows whom, so Lenscratch seeks photographers who then choose work by other photographers "who are in close proximity."
Ostensibly what is being documented here is similarity of zip code, rather than commonality of vision or similarity of subject or interpretation.
So don't necessarily look at the work of photographers from the South whose work is featured in the States Project to give us a definition of what is or is not Southern photography.
Still, the South is the South, and that's our specialty. So, Southern states profiled under the States Project umbrella, since we last checked in, include Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia.
Louisiana
The Louisiana entries in the States Project were curated by Vanessa Brown (see top photograph on this post), who also has a portfolio of her work as part of the Louisiana Collection.
Brown has also included work by Anne George (see second photograph on this blog entry), whose portfolio of work from Louisiana is here.
Also included is work by Kevin Kline(see third photograph from the top of this blog entry), whose portfolio of work from Louisiana is here.
Also included is work byLee Deigaard(see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from Louisiana is here.
Also included is work byRichard McCabe(see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from Louisiana is here.
Also included is work bySean Yseult(see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from Louisiana is here.
Also included is work byZack Smith (see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from Louisiana is here.
Tennessee
The Tennessee entries in the States Project were curated by Jerry Atnip (see image directly above), who also has a portfolio of his work as part of the Tennessee Collection.
Atnip has also included work byJack Spencer (see image second from the top of this blog entry), whose portfolio of work from Tennessee is here.
Also included is work byRachel Boillot(see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from Tennessee is here.
Also included is work by Polly Chandler(see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from Tennessee is here.
Also included is work byMike Smith (see image third from the top of this blog entry), whose portfolio of work from Louisiana is here.
Also included is work byAaron Hardin (see image third from the top of this blog entry), whose portfolio of work from Tennessee is here.
Texas
The Texas entries in the States Project were curated by Adam Neese (see image directly above), who also has a portfolio of his work as part of the Texas Collection.
Neese has also included work byLetitia Huckaby (see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from Texas is here.
Also included is work byRobert Collier Beam (see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from Texas is here
Also included is work byKasumi Chow and Desiree Espada (see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from Texas is here.
Also included is work byDiane Durant(see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from Texas is here.
Also included is work by Krista Steinke (see image third from the top of this blog entry), whose portfolio of work from Texas is here.
Also included is work byLeigh Merrill(see image third from the top of this blog entry), whose portfolio of work from Texas is here.
District of Columbia
I've gotten some blowback about including the District of Columbia on this blog.
But my theory is, if you are outdoors in Washington, DC, in July or August, you have no question about what part of the USA you are in.
In addition, the District of Columbia was carved out of two slave states (Maryland and Virginia), its key government buildings were built by slaves, slaves staffed the White House during the early years of the country, and DC went through the same descent into Jim Crow that the rest of the South did after Reconstruction was prematurely ended.
So, until some of those facts change, I'm continuing to believe that DC is a part of the South. West Virginia, now that's a more complicated story.
Anyway, the District of Columbia entries in the States Project were curated by Susanah Rabb (see image directly above), who also has a portfolio of her work as part of the District of Columbia Collection.
Rabb has also included work byJared Soares (see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from the District opf Columbia is here.
Also included is work byTatiana Gulenkina(see image directly above), whoseportfolio of work from the District is here.
Also included is work byEman Mohammed(see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from the District is here.
Also included is work byLouie Palu(see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from the District is here.
Also included is work byStephen Crowley (see image directly above), whose portfolio of work from the District is here.
Still more Southern states to go, for Lenscratch's States Project. We will look out for them, on the Southern Photographer.