This project began in Summer of 2024, ending in Summer of 2026. This ongoing series of photographs from Eastern Tennessee and the surrounding Appalachian region is a meditation on a place that isn’t home, yet feels like it. In “I Hear You Calling Me”, I’m able to understand and explore a land I’ve never fully known, but one that my ancestors did. I began this work in the summer of 2024, during a period of transition when I left New Orleans searching for pause and clarity. These images I’m creating became a way to reflect on trauma, finding peace, death and devotion–and how those themes live in both the Tennessee Valley and in my own experience. This work is less about finding answers, and more about dwelling in the in-between, trying to understand, from an outsider's perspective, an area I’ve only ever known so much about. My plan for completing the project is coming to the area during the summer months, scouting locations I would like to photograph, diving deeper into the concept and finding more cohesion, and ultimately using the scholarship money to help me create a physical portfolio for a review in New Orleans this December. Goals include: immersing myself in the area and its culture; photographing and speaking with the locals; submitting the body of work to exhibitions and contests; creating 20–30 additional images; and producing my first photo book.
