Publication: Our State: Down Home in North Carolina
Issue: March 2015, Amazing Place, Volume 82, Number 10
Story: Photo Essay: Amazing Place (p.13), Jan DeBlieu’s Hatteras Island by Jan DeBlieu (p.88-89), and Now, Voyager by Scott Huler (p.142-143)
STORY ONE: Jan DeBlieu’s Hatteras Island by Jan DeBlieu (p.88)
Amazing Place: What North Carolina Means to Writers, a new book edited by Marianne Gingher, inspired the staff at Our State Magazine to partner with the publisher to bring some of the writing to the pages of the monthly magazine. The editors took it a step further as well, adding visual images to represent each writer and their featured subject matter. I was lucky enough to score an opportunity to represent Jan DeBlieu’s essay on Hatteras Island with a photograph of a beached boat along the shores of Cape Hatteras National Seashore during a stunning sunrise reflected in the calm wet sands of the beach. While the situation was certainly tragic–and I felt conflicted about photographing someone else’s misfortune–the shipwreck also spoke strongly about the history of the island, it’s dueling currents and its infamous sandbars, not to mention it’s constantly changing nature as mentioned by DeBlieu in her essay.
Jan DeBlieu writes: [pull_quote_center]”I’ve never known anywhere like this, a land where the geology can be swept clean overnight. Living here has made me wake up to my life” (p.90).[/pull_quote_center]DeBlieu is known for her ability to pen narrative that lends sense of place. Placing my image alongside her narrative is very fulfilling as I, too, hope to someday be known with my photography as portraying a strong sense of place. The pairing was a really fantastic surprise for me.
STORY TWO: Now, Voyager by Scott Huler (p.142)
Imagine my surprise when one of the photo editors at Our State Magazine contacted me and said that they were interested in a photograph of mine that featured Spartina alterniflora! Huh? I have one of those?
Adventurer and writer, Scott Huler, is retracing the 1700 Carolina journey of John Lawson, eventual founder of Bath and New Bern, from Charleston to the Pamlico Sound. The initial portion of the adventure begins by canoe, passing through vast acres of saltmarsh cordgrass; it just so happened that one of my photographs worked for this illustration! I was leaning away from land with camera barely above water level, snapping blindly to get this particular perspective!
Huler writes in the article: [pull_quote_center]”In this world of instant connectivity and more information in a day than a person of Lawson’s era would have digested in a lifetime, there’s a lot to be said for heading out into the world, looking for — when no empty spaces remain on the maps — such empty spaces as we can find. With all this data available, we can forget that there’s a real, actual world out there, and that exploring it, opening our eyes to its surprises and gifts, is a worthy enterprise, regardless of what Google Maps has to say about it” (p. 148).[/pull_quote_center]
Thank you so much to the folks over at Our State for the opportunity to once again contribute to the mag. I truly enjoy reading my copy every month. You guys do a great job of pairing photographs with interesting and meaningful stories and it’s really fulfilling to see an image find purpose in print. Hopefully the authors of these respective articles also find the photography to pair favorably with their words. And thank you to everyone who has helped me in myriad ways to get myself and my photography out into the world for the right eyeballs to see! Your efforts are much appreciated! Pick up a copy or check out the article online at Our State if you’re interested!