Soliloquy

My practice is driven by a desire to craft fictional narratives rooted in documentary origins. My approach to portraiture and storytelling often emerges from chance encounters with strangers while I'm out in the world. In recent years, I produced a body of work titled 'Soliloquy' for my graduate thesis. Set in Southwest Georgia, an area where my maternal family has lived for generations, I created a fictional town known as Tarwater. The project centers on a failed Christian commune from the 1970s, founded by a young man who claimed to communicate with the spirit of Mary Magdalene. The aim of the commune was to establish a utopia on Earth, but in 1981, the tragic murders of three young women led to the collapse of the group. The narrative is seen from the perspective of an unnamed narrator years later in 1993, investigating the unsolved murders, the commune’s possible connection to the crimes, and the aftermath in the town. The project includes a written component consisting of short stories, poetry, and transcribed conversations, all of which reinforce the atmosphere established in the images. Themes of redemption, disillusionment, womanhood, verisimilitude, and Southern regionalism are woven throughout.