The Bottom is a series of photographs that are an investigation of the historic neighborhood Old South Baton Rouge in Louisiana. This is the community that I live in and it has a complex history of systemic and environmental segregation. I am making photographs of the landscape, residents and historical documents to look at how the past has shaped this area.
Much of this area was originally the Magnolia Mound Plantation, and when it was sold it was divided into small shotgun lots, by design creating a low-income neighborhood. It was segregated in the 1950s, and during this time period it was a thriving self-sustaining community. It was in the process of desegregation and the building of the I-10 highway bisecting it into two that drove the area to collapse in the 1960s. The title The Bottom is a name given to the neighborhood due to half of it being settled below a fault line, an area that sits at “the bottom” and historically floods.
I photograph city plans and maps juxtaposed with torn down houses and my neighbors to create a portrait of this community. I recognize that histories are often told from the person with the most power and I understand my privilege in making these photographs. I work closely with my neighbors photographing repeatedly and collaboratively to carefully negotiate my responsibility in how I am representing them. I hope the deteriorating infrastructure and highway can speak to the history of segregation while I strive for the portraits to show the happiness, anger, love and sadness of the residents. I carefully consider the use of color and black and white to portray a blur between past and present, with the neighborhood youth caught in the in-between. The highway images are hung high to represent its domination over the area. I want to create evidence showing the complexities of both people and place, and my experience living here. There is little visual history that exists for this area despite its historic importance during the civil rights era. I photograph to make a record that can hopefully draw a connection between past decisions and current consequences.
Photography