One of my reasons for heading south earlier this year was to experience a place I know only from photographs that are incredibly familiar and important to me - Hale County, Alabama. This is where Walker Evans and William Christenberry worked, documenting the landscape, the people, and structures for more than sixty years collectively.
I purposefully avoided looking at their Hale County work before departing on my trip, choosing to just go and see what I could find rather than hunting down the location of specific images. The only name I will always remember is Sprott, so I made sure not to miss it - little more than an abandoned crossroads with one of the churches that William Christenberry’s documented for decades not too far away.
William Christenberry - Sprott, Alabama
This experience - and this whole Southern trip in general - really made me realize how attached and inspired I am by every aspect of the Great Plains and the West. The South is not my home. I felt like I was just passing through, gawking at the landscape rather than documenting it in my usual way.
I am very glad to have visited Alabama, even as a tourist.
