To Cultivate A Magnolia

To live in Richmond, Virginia is to live in a city alive with its own history. Everything brushes the threshold between contemporary and historical, creating an almost indescribable magic that has made me the photographer and person I am today. As Benjamin Botkin states in A Treasury of Southern Folklore: “If at times…the immortals of Southern history seem to lack folklore appeal, that is because the folk stories have died with the people that told them or because the biographers have been more interested in erecting a marble monument than in portraying a flesh-and-blood creature.” In this ongoing series, I present my experiences in Richmond over the past nine years as that flesh-and-blood creature, along with generations of Virginians before me, whose legacies live on as the silent witnesses. Referencing the hardiness of its leaves in tandem with the delicacy of its flowers, To Cultivate A Magnolia examines the folklore and history of Richmond and greater Virginia, the endurance of the American Civil War, the complexities of queer identity, and the moments of reflection that come as we age.