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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |
Tamara Reynolds works and lives in Nashville. She has had group and solo exhibitions nationally and twice has been a Critical Mass Finalist and was part of the Review Santa Fe 100 this year. Her work has been featured on Lenscratch, Light Leaked, Oxford American, One One Thousand and other online sites.
We talked with her about her project "Southern Route," what makes a good portrait, if there's such a thing as Southern photography and how the art of storytelling helps her portraiture.
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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |
fototazo: The majority of your images are either portraits or city/landscapes; there are no still lives, no interiors without figures in them, no detail shots – you place the focus squarely on people and also on their contextual spatial container. Why this focus?
Tamara Reynolds: I am more concerned with the relationship that develops between my subject and myself during the time we have together. Their environment plays an important part of revealing who they are and how I feel within their environment
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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |
f: In your statement you talk about how some of the stereotypes of the South – hillbilly, religious extremist, racist – make you cringe and that this project has been in a sense a way to come to a more profound understanding of the place you grew up. What have been your visual approaches and strategies to giving dimension beyond stereotypes and depth as an adult to the place you grew up? How can one do those things through images?
TR: My approach and strategies to giving dimension to stereotypes…is to offer myself openly and vulnerably. It is scary but this is when I know I must explore the situation. The photo has grown out of an encounter and/or relationship with the individual. As I venture longer and deeper into the process/project I find that my fear subsides, the generalizations minimize and individuals emerge. There is something more to learn and understand beyond the conditional, the stereotypical thought. I have the chance to question my own compliance and thus address the shame of being complacent, insulated and unconscious towards life outside my own.
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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |
f: A second question on stereotypes: where does the line exist between playing into stereotypes and tapping into icons of representation as a way to locate us and reference history? I'm thinking here of images like one with the Confederate flag and the man smoking with a gun in hand. How have you tried to work with that line?
TR: I take photos indicative of the Old South but I hope to bring a more humanistic, individualistic element into the image. For instance, the skull on top of the Confederate flag tells one story, the swing set in the photo tells another, and the disrepair of it all tells yet more. The image of the man smoking with the gun can be seen as intimidating, but then again maybe he is just trying to be intimidating. It is a stereotype, but can't we look a bit longer and see something else all together? His sandaled feet, his neatly tucked shirt and wrinkled jeans tell a bit more about who he is. I chose to photograph him with his hand blocking his mouth to suggest even more within the story.
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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |
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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |
f: You write, "I chose to explore the South on back roads and across railroad tracks. In so doing, I found I could appreciate my home despite its fallings." What is it about out of the way places that allow someone to see and appreciate a place that might not be as apparent or present in the spotlights and main streets?
TR: These places mentioned are tucked away and forgotten from the urban growth of larger cities. Also urban areas are becoming more and more homogenized. The Southern uniqueness is being lost. It is on the outskirts of the cities one might find that which is distinctive of the South and unlike the rest of the country. The South is the fastest growing population of the US by migrating Northerners and immigrating Hispanics and other ethnicities. Southern traditions of home grown cooking, generous hospitality, humble regards are disappearing in favor of mainstream, melting pot America. Part of the conflict I am experiencing is seeing the disappearing uniqueness of the South. Although I am grateful for the growth and progress of the South with the introduction of global influences and modernity, I am sad to see the Southern customs disappearing.
f: What makes a good portrait?
TR: A good portrait to me bares a touch of the heart of the photographer as well as the subject while stirring the heart within the viewer.
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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |
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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |
f: You have a number of shots that are fantastic for the gesture of the subject – the man with the oxygen tube, the boy on the swing, the man in silhouette walking towards you in a store. How do you approach working with subjects generally - how do you select and interact with them - and what is it about your approach that allows you to work so well with gesture?
TR: I am an adventurer and explorer. I get anxious if sedentary too long. Taking to the roads gives me a feeling of purpose and direction. It puts me in an attitude and opportunity to learn and to photograph. To quote Emmet Gowin, "There are things in your life that only you will see, stories that only you will hear. If you don't tell them or write them down, if you don't make the picture, these things will not be seen, these things will not be heard." (Emmet Gowen, Emmett Gowen. Fundacion Mapfre, 2013) If I don't put myself there, I will not see it. So I drive and I dive right into conversations with someone I meet or find interesting. I go to places where people will be or I may see them on the road walking, cutting the grass in their yard, gassing up their cars. Most the times my subjects are just as interested in me or like Southerners they like to talk, are generally receptive and open.
I think the vulnerability I am willing to give at the moment is comforting to the subject. What I have learned is people want to make contact with one another; they want to be heard. Conversation is a great relaxer and I think Southerners are a natural at it. We appreciate the art of storytelling. I've noticed too that Southerners are typically easy, open and receptive. I try to be and I get it in kind. As they say "you get what you give." This idea takes me back to the portrait question. How can I make a portrait of someone without relating what is in me?
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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |
f: Is there such a thing as a Southern photograph?
TR: I believe there is a tendency towards nostalgia, melodrama, mystery and depressiveness. The plentiful stereotypes, the rich, green land and the cherishing of our history makes for a very Southern photograph. I think Romanticism would describe Southern photography quite well.
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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |
f: Anything else you'd like to add, Tamara?
TR: In my statement I mention that the South has been carrying the sins of the country seemingly alone. We have been branded the culprits of racism, fanaticism etc. I do liked what Chuck Thompson said here: "If it did nothing else, my time in the South did teach me to empathize with Southerners of all political persuasions who are sick and tired of having the honor of their region traduced by moralizing Northern jackasses such as myself (however impressively informed and well-intentioned we might be). For enduring the constant shaming and petty ridicule of the North, Southerners deserve some sort of national medal." What many years of living has taught me is if anyone suffers repeated offense they only know how to respond with defense. So with some compassion we might stand a chance to heal.
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| From the series "Southern Route" © Tamara Reynolds |