Courtney Garvin In AINT - BAD

 
New York City-based photographer Courtney Garvin  (see images above and below) has work from her In These Clasped Hands portfolio featured on AINT-BAD Magazine, here.

Garvin grew up in New York but she was born in South Carolina. 

That, and her work in this portfolio, make clear that she is at heart a Southern photographer.  

Garvin says of this work that "In These Clasped Hands looks at generational experiences, race, and community in a multifaceted Black life." 

It started out, she says, as a "series of portraits of [her] family members in South Carolina." 

But, as often happens in the American South, history caught up with her.

As Garvin puts it, "after the Mother Emanuel Church shooting, the burning of several Black churches throughout the South, the continuous killings of unarmed Black women, men, and children, and being chased down a secluded dirt road by men on ATVs, the focus of the project changed."

Garvin's work explores fundamental aspects of Southern history and culture -- that is, in "family histories, memory, storytelling," and, I might add, religion and race and the lived experiences of Southern culture.  

Congratulations to Garvin for finding ways to make meaning of yet another dark time in Southern history.

Garvin is definitely a Southern photographer we will watch out for.