|
In the summer of 2017 Bettina Lockemann travelled to Hale County, Alabama, to realize a photography project on the situation in the rural US South. The small town of Greensboro served as a basis for her project. It was there where in the summer of 1936 James Agee and Walker Evans met the three tenant farmers they portrayed for the project that would later become famous under the title of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. The area is to some extent photohistorically well-known terrain. However, in Germany we have neither an idea about the economical situation today nor on the appearance of the area or the people who live there. Thus Bettina Lockemann developped her project Southward – nach Süden. Initially it follows the topics of Walker Evans’ photographs and shows the small town of Greensboro, the landscape, the agriculture, the people and their homes. The repertoire is broadened by archtectures of the Rural Studio, an architecture program of Auburn University. Additionally the project deals with the historic facts of slavery, cotton, and the Civil Rights Movement. The pictures are embedded into short stories that give an account of Bettina’s personal approach to locations and people. The project was facilitated by a project grant of the Kunststiftung NRW. 
|
