Artist: Jeanine Michna-Bales

Project: Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad

Description: In Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad Jeanine Michna-Bales recreates the long voyage north toward freedom as it might have looked through the eyes of a single individual “oftentimes carrying little more than the knowledge that moss grows on the north side of trees.” These photographs of unpeopled rural landscapes, taken almost exclusively under the cover of descending or ebbing darkness, contain a sense of both intimacy and mystery, conveying “how vast, strange, and forbidding these remote places must have felt to those making the journey” with an almost painful steadiness of vision: the camera trained always on the ground ahead, the sky, or the horizon line, the promise of a future the viewer can’t yet see.

The photos presented here are excerpted from a longer photographic essay, in which they’re often paired with quotes from songs, letters, or the memoirs of those who traveled or assisted others along the Underground Railroad’s rugged path. Beside a photograph of a wide, empty field north of the Cane River Plantations in Louisiana, a line from a spiritual reads: Oh, run Mary, run: / I know the other world is not like this. And alongside a cluster of small, distant clapboard buildings lit by the barely-rising sun there’s a quote from John Little, a fugitive slave: “’Tisn’t he who has stood and looked on that can tell you what slavery is—’tis he who has endured.” Through the project, we see the streams, hills, and vast green woods of the Underground Railroad not as a comfortable observer removed by hundreds of years of history, but as an implicated party asked to imagine having to risk “everything for the cause of freedom” and what we might have seen and felt on the long road to get there.

• “Decision to Leave.” Magnolia Plantation on the Cane River, Louisiana, 2013 “Decision to Leave.” Magnolia Plantation on the Cane River, Louisiana, 2013
• “Southern Pine Forest.“ Following El Camino Real, LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, 2014 “Southern Pine Forest.“ Following El Camino Real, LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, 2014
• “Stopover.“ Frogmore Plantation, Concordia Parish, Louisiana, 2014 “Stopover.“ Frogmore Plantation, Concordia Parish, Louisiana, 2014
• “Catching a Breath.“ LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, 2014 “Catching a Breath.“ LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, 2014
• “Moonlight Over the Mississippi.“ Tensas Parish, Louisiana, 2014 “Moonlight Over the Mississippi.“ Tensas Parish, Louisiana, 2014
• “Sunken Trace.“ Claiborne County, Mississippi, 2015 “Sunken Trace.“ Claiborne County, Mississippi, 2015
• “Determining True North in the Rain.“ Along the southern part of the Old Natchez Trace, Mississippi, 2014 “Determining True North in the Rain.“ Along the southern part of the Old Natchez Trace, Mississippi, 2014
• “Tracking the Deer.“ Skirting the Osburn Stand, Mississippi, 2014 “Tracking the Deer.“ Skirting the Osburn Stand, Mississippi, 2014
• “Cypress Swamp.“ Middle Mississippi, 2014 “Cypress Swamp.“ Middle Mississippi, 2014
• “Off the Beaten Path.“ Along the Yockanookany River, Mississippi, 2014 “Off the Beaten Path.“ Along the Yockanookany River, Mississippi, 2014
• “Keep Going.“ Crossing the Tennessee River, Colbert County, Alabama, 2014 “Keep Going.“ Crossing the Tennessee River, Colbert County, Alabama, 2014
• “Twisted Thicket.“ Lawrence County, Tennessee, 2014 “Twisted Thicket.“ Lawrence County, Tennessee, 2014
• “Devil’s Backbone.“ Lewis County, Tennessee, 2014 “Devil’s Backbone.“ Lewis County, Tennessee, 2014
• “Hidden in Plain Sight.“ Rose Mont Plantation, Sumner County, Tennessee, 2014 “Hidden in Plain Sight.“ Rose Mont Plantation, Sumner County, Tennessee, 2014
• “A Lesson in Astronomy.“ Southern Kentucky, 2014 “A Lesson in Astronomy.“ Southern Kentucky, 2014
• “Fleeing the Torches.“ Warren County, Kentucky, 2014 “Fleeing the Torches.“ Warren County, Kentucky, 2014
• “Hidden Passage.“ Mammoth Cave, Barren County, Kentucky, 2014 “Hidden Passage.“ Mammoth Cave, Barren County, Kentucky, 2014
• “Over the Hills.“ North Trimble County, Kentucky, 2014 “Over the Hills.“ North Trimble County, Kentucky, 2014
• “Eagle Hollow from Hunter’s Bottom.“ Just across the Ohio River, Indiana, 2014 “Eagle Hollow from Hunter’s Bottom.“ Just across the Ohio River, Indiana, 2014
• “Nightlight.“ Passing into Fayette County, Indiana, 2014 “Nightlight.“ Passing into Fayette County, Indiana, 2014
• “Friend or Foe?“ Station just outside Metamora, Indiana, 2014 “Friend or Foe?“ Station just outside Metamora, Indiana, 2014
• “A Brief Respite.“ Abolitionist William Beard’s house, Union County, Indiana, 2014 “A Brief Respite.“ Abolitionist William Beard’s house, Union County, Indiana, 2014
• “Dirt Road.“ Outside Coldwater, Michigan, 2014 “Dirt Road.“ Outside Coldwater, Michigan, 2014
• “Within Reach.“ Crossing the St. Clair River to Canada just south of Port Huron, Michigan, 2014 “Within Reach.“ Crossing the St. Clair River to Canada just south of Port Huron, Michigan, 2014
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Eyes on the South&\#xA0;is curated by&\#xA0;Jeff Rich. The weekly series features selections of current work from Southern artists, or artists whose photography concerns the South. To submit your work to the series, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..