I feel guilty for treating y’all like a captive audience and forcing you to look at some art I added to my website, but not so guilty that I’m not going to do it. Mostly it’s because I am lazy and don’t feel like digging up a real post. No wait, strike that — it’s because these photographs are so AMAZING and INCREDIBLE that I felt I would be doing you a disservice to withhold them.
Even I didn’t believe that. Whatever. I’m posting them anyway.
These images are from a series of large format photographs I did on my home town Texarkana, a wee settlement at the corner of Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Shocking, given the name.
Texarkana is a funny place. Like any small hometown, it has more than its fair share of a provincial mindset. I found myself bursting at the seams by the ripe old age of 15, grown too big for all those little ideas.
Or so I thought. Once gone, I was surprised by how very much I missed driving the lonely highways at night, with no one except for the armadillos and opossums to witness my attempts to break the sound barrier in my battered Mazda 626.
And, trite though it may be to write this, I miss hauling our little red wagon full of cow bones around the levees of our family farm more than I ever thought possible.
I kind of hate that I was so cynical about home when I was there, but I suppose that is the teenage condition. And I suppose nostalgia is the adult equivalent, because home is not a real place; it’s a state of being that dissipates along with acne and adolescence.
Holy crap, that was way too heavy for a Friday.
Go see some more pictures from this series here if you dare.
Have a super weekend, y’all!
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Lazy? Today’s post is wonderful. These photos have a lovely sinister quality…the chair is my favorite. And I find your musings on the nature of adolescence and home to be very moving. Thumbs up from NJ.
I think it was pretty excellent for a Friday. Your photographs and nostalgia go hand-in-hand. I love the last image of the lone chair.
Gorgeous post,
And that last image of the chair is absolutely haunting.
Stunning work all ’round.
Happy Friday,
Alcira
nerochronicles.com
You better be gloating. My wife promised to slice off important things if I did not stop checking out you blog.
I could read your writing and stare at your photographs ALL DAY LONG.
Seriously you are so talented!!
And… I would never guess you were from such a small town. Makes me feel boring for being born in suburbia. Texarkana is the bestest name for a small border town ever.
Thanks, guys
I feel pretty douchey posting my own work like I’m somebody special, so I really appreciate all of the kind comments!
you know the baseball field is my super fave but now that highway shot is giving it a run for it’s money. baseball still wins.
You are someone special and the wagon full of cow bones explains a lot
These photos are off the hook!!!!!!!
I LOVE field. It reminds me of the swedish film, Låt den rätte komma in (I’m too pretentious to write the English title). Thank you for sharing.
great pics & totally relate to your sentiment about the nostalgia for the places we grow up. i also grew up in a small-ish Texas town & i now look back on it w/a fondness i never thought possible! esp love the birdhouse photo. it looks so quiet & still.
There’s definitely an attraction/repulsion thing at work here (for me)… hence the “sinister” undertones.
I miss my hometown, but I do not ever wish to live there again. Sorry, Dad!
You are so talented, Erin!
I would love the picture of the highway blown up really big and hung on my wall.
Will you make prints to sell?
xo
beautiful work, Erin. the highway shot is my fave. and the chair. and the second one. why is it not called texarkaniana? i, too, had a beat up mazda 626! have a fanflippintastic weekend. xo, s
Wow! I love these images. You are so talented — what a pleasure to stare at them. { My grandparents lived in Texarkana for a while. }
Those are BEAUTIFUL Erin…you should be proud! Will there be a shop on this new site?
Your photojournalistic post reads peaceful in a lonely way, to me. It’s not a throwaway. It’s nice.
These are so beautiful. Great post.
WOW! these are really beautiful.
be proud & shout it loud lady!
I’m from a rinky-dink town too (in South Carolina) and feel much the same way about it. These pictures are so evocative though, love them.
Awesome shots, Erin! I love starkly defined b&w photos, as opposed to softer, grey tones.
I’m intrigued by the slightly creepy quality of that birdhouse. Excuse me while I look over my shoulder . . .
Yay pretty pictures! These are beautiful. And, um, I’m sad about how truthful your last couple sentences are about ‘home’. Damnit, it’s like leaning santa isn’t real… there’s no home now either!! ef. Rapture.
Having grown up in the middle of TinyRedneckTown, Georgia I can totally relate to your feelings of nostalgia and repulsion. I think your pictures are awesome.
I already own Karly’s horse print so maybe I should buy one of your prints to complete the weirdo Design Crisis shrine I’m apparently creating in my house!
I’d be happy to complete the shrine! Now, just gotta make some prints…