Every photograph is a certificate of presence. - Barthes
In the last decade of his life, I came to know a famous and important artist.
These photographs made inside his Lexington, Virginia, studio (circa 2007-2008) are among my favorite reminders of the time we spent together.
I think of them as visual notes from an improbable, remarkable friendship.
Selections from the exhibition
STUDIO NOTES: My Time with Cy
Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna, Austria
11 May – 18 August 2023
Once upon a time, I became friends with a great artist who maintained a studio in the rural Virginia town where I live and where he was born. I made many photographs of the artist's home and studio. Despite the quality of our friendship, he was so private, so reticent in most ways, his willingness to permit such access always surprised me. When news of his death arrived, I said goodbye by taking my camera for a final visit to both places.
I began working through all of those images by starting at the end. The current series is a study of--and engagement with--marks from the walls of my friend's empty studio.
Mixed media on archival pigment prints, each unique.
Series I (2013): 4” x 4”
Series II (2020): 6” x 6”
Available exclusively at the Anzenberger Gallery.
These photographs happened in sequence, on a single roll of film, when a very famous artist—a great collector of things—-bought a dusty Rolleiflex at a yard sale and invited three photographers to see if it would work.
September 13, 2008
Rockbridge County, Virginia
From Cy's Rollei
Photographs by Sally Mann, Rob McDonald and Even Rogers
Nazraeli Press (2010)
One
(c) Sally Mann
Two
(c) Rob McDonald
Three
(c) Even Rogers
Four
(c) Even Rogers
Five
(c) Even Rogers
Six
(c) Even Rogers
Seven
(c) Even Rogers
Eight
(c) Even Rogers
Nine
(c) Even Rogers
Ten
(c) Rob McDonald
Eleven
(c) Rob McDonald
Twelve
(c) Rob McDonald
A book with collector’s edition option is now available now (September 2023).
Original publication: “Fancy Hill”
Elsewhere: A Journal of Place (2022)
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
Rockbridge County, VA
NATIVE GROUND is an ode to my love of reading - to books, to writers and the places that inspire in them the words for things that matter. The photographs are documentary only insofar as they begin in attention to particular writers' personal spaces and native landscapes. What interests me most is how the images can suggest resonance, how places inhabited might be imagined to shape vision and voice.
St. Andrews Episcopal School
Sewanee, Tennessee
Childhood Home of James Agee
St. Andrews Episcopal School
Sewanee, Tennessee
Childhood Home of James Agee
Larry Brown's Farm
Tula, Mississippi
Larry Brown's Farm
Tula, Mississippi
Erskine Caldwell's Birthplace
Moreland, Georgia
Erskine Caldwell's Birthplace
Moreland, Georgia
Birthplace of Harry Crews
Bacon County, Georgia
Birthplace of Harry Crews
Bacon County, Georgia
Rowan Oak
Home of William Faulkner
Oxford, Mississippi
Rowan Oak
Home of William Faulkner
Oxford, Mississippi
Rowan Oak
Home of William Faulkner
Oxford, Mississippi
Birthplace and Home of Ernest Gaines
New Roads, Louisiana
Birthplace and Home of Ernest Gaines
New Roads, Louisiana
Home of Alan Gurganus
Hillsborough, North Carolina
Home of Alan Gurganus
Hillsborough, North Carolina
Home of Alan Gurganus
Hillsborough, North Carolina
Birthplace of Zora Neale Hurston
Eatonville, Florida
Birthplace of Zora Neale Hurston
Eatonville, Florida
Hometown of Harper Lee
Monroeville, Alabama
Hometown of Harper Lee
Monroeville, Alabama
Home of Margaret Mitchell
Atlanta, Georgia
Home of Margaret Mitchell
Atlanta, Georgia
Andalusia
Home of Flannery O'Connor
Milledgeville, Georgia
Andalusia
ome of Flannery O'Connor
Milledgeville, Georgia
Andalusia
ome of Flannery O'Connor
Milledgeville, Georgia
Hometown of Breece D'J Pancake
Milton, West Virginia
Hometown of Breece D'J Pancake
Milton, West Virginia
Hometown of Breece D'J Pancake
Milton, West Virginia
Hometown of Breece D'J Pancake
Milton, West Virginia
Cross Creek
Home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Cross Creek, Florida
Cross Creek
Home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Cross Creek, Florida
Cross Creek
Home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Cross Creek, Florida
Cross Creek
Home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Cross Creek, Florida
Hometown of Lee Smith
Grundy, Virginia
Cross Creek
Home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Cross Creek, Florida
Hometown of Lee Smith
Grundy, Virginia
Hometown of Lee Smith
Grundy, Virginia
Laurel Falls Camp for Girls
Home of Lillian E. Smith
Clayton, Georgia
Laurel Falls Camp for Girls
Home of Lillian E. Smith
Clayton, Georgia
Laurel Falls Camp for Girls
Home of Lillian E. Smith
Clayton, Georgia
Laurel Falls Camp for Girls
Home of Lillian E. Smith
Clayton, Georgia
Home of James Still
Knott County, Kentucky
Home of James Still
Knott County, Kentucky
Home of James Still
Knott County, Kentucky
Home of James Still
Knott County, Kentucky
Childhood Home of William Styron
Newport News, Virginia
Hilton Village
Childhood Home of William Styron
Newport News, Virginia
Hilton Village
Childhood Home of William Styron
Newport News, Virginia
Temporary Home of Jean Toomer
Sparta, Georgia
Temporary Home of Jean Toomer
Sparta, Georgia
Birthplace of Alice Walker
Eatonton, Georgia
Temporary Home of Jean Toomer
Sparta, Georgia
Temporary Home of Jean Toomer
Sparta, Georgia
Temporary Home of Jean Toomer
Sparta, Georgia
Birthplace of Alice Walker
Eatonton, Georgia
Birthplace of Robert Penn Warren
Guthrie, Kentucky
Birthplace of Robert Penn Warren
Guthrie, Kentucky
Birthplace of Robert Penn Warren
Guthrie, Kentucky
Birthplace of Robert Penn Warren
Guthrie, Kentucky
Birthplace of Robert Penn Warren
Guthrie, Kentucky
Home of Eudora Welty
Jackson, Mississippi
Home of Eudora Welty
Jackson, Mississippi
Home of Eudora Welty
Jackson, Mississippi
Home of Eudora Welty
Jackson, Mississippi
St. George's Episcopal Rectory
Childhood Home of Tennessee Williajms Williams
Clarksdale, Mississippi
St. George's Episcopal Rectory
hildhood Home of Tennessee Williajms Williams
Clarksdale, Mississippi
St. George's Episcopal Rectory
hildhood Home of Tennessee Williajms Williams
Clarksdale, Mississippi
St. George's Episcopal Rectory
hildhood Home of Tennessee Williajms Williams
Clarksdale, Mississippi
hildhood Home of Thomas Wolfe
Asheville, North Carolina
hildhood Home of Thomas Wolfe
Asheville, North Carolina
hildhood Home of Thomas Wolfe
Asheville, North Carolina
hildhood Home of Thomas Wolfe
Asheville, North Carolina
hildhood Home of Thomas Wolfe
Asheville, North Carolina
Are we all lost and far from home? I think I could build an argument around that. —Paul Kingsnorth, Savage Gods
The title of this series is borrowed from a friend who created amazing sculptures and drawings from fantastical dreams of structures he’d encountered growing up in rural Alabama.
My own dreams are more literal, but they are also rooted in personal history, and they often involve places like the ones in these photographs, tumble-down forms that once provided shelter or sanctuary.
It would be entirely reasonable if these photographs initially suggest emptiness and loss, places left behind.
Looked at another way, though, maybe they’ll also whisper possibilities of remembering and reconstruction, stories ripe for telling.
(Originally published in Barren Magazine 21 [2022].)
“Imagining Harry Crews: The Landscape of A Childhood”
Photographs from Bacon County, Georgia
Recipient of the 2022 Jerome Stern Award for the best essay in Studies in American Culture 45.1 (October 2022): 5-34.
”‘Larry Brown, Writer,’ and a Place Called Tula”
Read the essay in the Southern Literary Review (15 April 2021).
Appalachian Ode:
Photographs of Breece D’J Pancake’s West Virginia
Landscape is personal and tribal history made visible. The native’s identity—his place in the total scheme of things—is not in doubt because the myths that support it are as real as the rocks and waterholes he can see and touch. He finds recorded in his land the ancient story of the lives and deeds of the immortal beings from whom he himself is descended, and whom he reveres. The whole countryside is his family tree. (157-158) —Yi-Fu Tan, Space and Place
Published in the South Atlantic Review (Fall 2020).
THE FATHER BOX
“So many fragments. It comes down to fragments always.” – John Lane
Award-winning writer John Lane’s father committed suicide in 1959 when John was five years old. A single box holds letters, photos, objects, and papers comprising nearly everything John knows about his father.
Two years ago, John sent the box home with me and asked me to contemplate its contents through the lens of my camera.
These are some of the photographs I made.
(See the book, published by Horse & Buggy Press, November 2018.)
So many fragments. It comes down to fragments always.
… a book of family stories, some genetic code dating back …
… small strict blue lines of type like farm fields.
If I had a childhood appetite it was a hunger to grow up and be one of Parker’s boys …
My father never followed orders, never signed the card.
… expectations not that things and lives don’t work out, but that they do.
… the slow retreat / into memory …
The hat looks formal, but my father wears it at an angle.
The sadness persisted in him; he spoke of it often.
His large dark farmer’s hands hang calmly at his sides.
My father brought back souvenirs.
A thousand years before they expected the chalice to break.
More like cloth sheen than dark needles of fir collapsing …
This was the war.
My son. My father’s son.
… a territory settled by the pilgrims of loss.
… a line of trees once obscuring the uneasy field.
The royal field of his short life is revealed in the honor guard of this box.
Fifty stars fell on my father in 1959.
A new book from Hub City Press, October 2015.
PAPRIKA SOUTHERN interview with Rob McDonald
In The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard suggests that "When we examine a nest, we place ourselves at the origin of confidence in the world." The Birdhouses portfolio represents a personal exploration of the relationship between place and identity: meditations on home.
Somewhere in South Georgia
Somewhere in North Carolina
Temperance Hill, South Carolina
Somewhere in North Carolina
Pike County, Georgia
Bacon County, Georgia
In 1806, Thomas Jefferson began construction on a personal retreat near Bedford, Virginia, some ninety miles from his home, Monticello. He transformed nearly five thousand acres of pristine farmland and woods into a modestly equipped estate he called Poplar Forest. Jefferson visited Poplar Forest regularly during construction and after the house was complete. He found there, as he wrote to a friend, "the solitude of a hermit." These photographs explore the notion of retreat, of private space, which we all--even a man so great as Jefferson--require and seek instinctively.