Artist: Morgan Ashcom

Project: What the Living Carry (MACK)

Description: The photographs in Morgan Ashcom’s What The Living Carry are situated in the fictional Southern town of Hoys Fork, a community inspired by the rural Virginia landscape of Ashcom’s childhood and by William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County. Laced with strangeness and mystery, they lead the viewer on “a trail through the town and its surrounding forest.” In one shot, “a forlorn old man, with champagne to hand, reclines on the corroding steps of a once grand home.” In another, “a bloodied mattress is carried through an overgrown field.” In the foreground of one bright photo, a solitary, shirtless child “burrows into a meadow.” Together, the images present a kind of fragmented narrative, “a visual record that is simultaneously autobiographical and imagined, and inclined to elude.”

Eyes on the South is curated by 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..