Slowly, I'm working through the images I made during my first trip to my hometown of Columbus, Mississippi in February. There are many. 

In a previous post I mentioned that something has been on my mind, bugging me, pushing me to do work in the South, but I had no idea what to shoot or how. I still don't have a vision of the final images, but at least I've begun the work. If ever there was a project that would require me to put in the time, this is it. I must return and return, explore and question and reconnect until at some point (I hope) I will know what I'm doing.

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I was born in Columbus, as was my dad. My mom was born about forty-five minutes from Columbus, in a town called Amory--her father, too. My grandmother is from Tupelo, one aunt is from Clarksdale. Basically, everyone in my family was born in that area: cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents... Some family lived in, or now lives in, Northern Alabama, and if you check my information on Ancestry.com, my ancestors quickly found their way to Northern Alabama/Mississippi, and for the most part, stayed there. 

My dad had a long career in the Air Force, which eventually moved us to San Antonio, Texas, where my parents divorced when I was seven, and my sister was five. There I stayed through college until I graduated and moved to Austin. 

It's been South, South, and more South in my family. I married a Texan and, together, we made some more Southerners.

On average, I have probably visited Mississippi and Alabama once a year since we first moved away in 1980. Our first visits after moving felt like a home-coming--back to family and friends and places I knew well. There was the bakery up the street from my grandparents' house where my cousins and I used to walk up to the loading area and receive a fresh doughnut each. There was Probst Park, Leigh Park, Skate Odyssey, Shipley Donuts, Fairview Baptist Church, Hardee's, and MawMaw and PawPaw's big backyard full of things to play in and on (including the tallest swing-set and long seesaw our PawPaw built, not to mention his fishing boat and three-wheeler.) MawMaw kept a nursery, so there were always kids to play with (plus all of our cousins!) 

As we got older, though, and became more at home in Texas and the huge town of San Antonio, Columbus seemed to get smaller and less exciting. Soon I would forget my way around town and family I'd seen every day of my young life became strangers I loved.

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To give myself a starting point that seemed achievable, I focused on photographing family and on driving around Columbus and simply documenting what I saw. Having a big goal for conceptual images, or even images that look anything like what I usually do, doesn't make sense.

First things, first. Get back there. Be there often. Pay attention. Get familiar. Be open to possibilities.

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All the images shared here are from my five-day trip in February. My sister drove me all over the place. I didn't get too personal with anyone. It was more of an overview, I guess. There are many, many more.

I'm heading back there tomorrow. Then there will be many more images and more and more stories to keep.