Southern Crossings: Where Geography and Photography Meet

Jessica Lynch

When humans live in a place over time, we leave our mark. Marks that represent lifestyles, connections between society and land, and values.

Photo of Atlanta, GA

In Southern Crossings: Where Geography and Photography Meet, artist David Zurick captures the marks he sees humans have left on earth throughout the south.

In this exhibit, there are pictures taken throughout several southern states including Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina. Photographs range from pictures of buildings and landscapes, to gravesites and chemical plants.

One of Zurick’s photographs was taken in Pearl River County, Mississippi, in 2000. The photograph is of an old broken down farmhouse set beneath big oak trees and surrounding fields. In the explanation of this photo, Zurick explains that it is the home of an elderly woman who chose to live there because, “that is the way she was born and the way she would die.” Zurick believes old farmhouses such as hers are footnotes of the historical south. Many are disappearing, and the landscape will not be the same when they are gone.

A second photograph was taken in downtown Cordele, Georgia. Cordele is a city located on the Old Dixie highway, whose downtown area used to consist of thriving shops and restaurants serving travelers and farmers passing through town. Now, this once busy downtown is dead, and looks to remain that way. The only part of Cordele that remains afloat is the part located on Interstate 75, that consist of a strip of motels and fast food restaurants.

Another photograph in the exhibit represents the opposite of Cordele, taken in Atlanta, Georgia in 2001. The photo is of the Atlanta skyline featuring skyscrapers and buildings as far as the eye can see. What is interesting about this photo is that there is no form of life in the picture. You can see no people or vehicles on the road, a site that a person who lives in Atlanta their entire life may never see. Zurick took this picture early one Sunday morning, and says it was an “arresting sight.”

Senior Brandon Braner, a visitor at the museum, says the picture of Atlanta is his favorite of the exhibit. “I was born and raised in Atlanta,” Braner said, “and I have never seen the city look that way. The emptiness makes the city look like it has been emptied, and for once peaceful.”

The Southern Crossings: Where Geography and Photography Meet exhibit is currently being displayed in Barnard Hall across from the Student Union.