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Part of the exclusive online showroom developed by All About Photo, this exhibition is on view for the month of August 2023 and includes twenty photographs from the series ‘Rotan Switch’.

Sandrine Hermand-Grisel is the curator for this month's show.

Rotan Switch.

I began documenting life on my grandparents’ cotton farm in 1978, when I was twenty-one years old. I developed close relationships with the people who worked on the farm. They welcomed me into their homes; I’d hang out with them at the juke joints where they relaxed at the end of a hard week of work. We’d share fried chicken and black-eyed peas. We’d sing 'Sweet Jesus, Carry Me Home' at St. John Missionary Baptist Church.

More info: all-about-photo.com | Instagram | lisamccordphotography.com | leicagalleryla.com

#1

Rochelle With Daughter And Grandson

Rochelle With Daughter And Grandson

© Lisa Mccord Report

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JM
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is so much genuine warmth in this photo. It touches my heart.

I have lived in many places, but my idea of home remains firmly rooted in the Arkansas land and people. After forty years, I have come to realize that all the photographs I made at Rotan are explorations of home. I’ve also come to realize that the place I call home is not perfect. Rotan Switch takes its name from the community’s central landmark—the railroad switch where farmers loaded their cotton bales onto trains headed out of the Delta. Although it hasn’t been used in years, it remains a potent symbol of the complex intersections of industry and agriculture, of race and injustice.

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    #2

    A Humid Day © Lisa Mccord

    A Humid Day © Lisa Mccord

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    Jane No Dough
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I love this photo, so seventies. I can feel and smell the air after the storm passed through. I remember the long borrrring days hanging with friends until Mom threatened an as* beating if you didn't get inside. NO PHONES, NO COMPUTERS, NO MONEY, just cartoons, comic books, Mad magazines and mayhem...

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    These photographs are complicated; they exist in the context of the socioeconomic structures of the rural South. Although the subjects are family to me, as a white photographer and the granddaughter of a landowner, my photographs of the Black community implicate my own role in reinforcing these power structures. In a community in which most people spend their time working or caring for children, my ability to observe and document in itself has been a position of privilege.

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    #4

    Cheryl With Silos

    Cheryl With Silos

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    #5

    Don And Dedrick In Cotton

    Don And Dedrick In Cotton

    © Lisa Mccord Report

    The images are coupled with my own memories as well as reflections by the people in the photographs. These images are a record of my story of Rotan and the Arkansas Delta, a story that is specific to me and my family’s role in a place where inequities exist to this day. I have done my best to acknowledge this complicated history.

    #7

    Boys With Cars

    Boys With Cars

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    #8

    Cully And James Kissing

    Cully And James Kissing

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    Aria Whitaker
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Reminds me SO much of my own beloved late grandparents!! Lovely :)

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    #9

    Young Couple On Couch

    Young Couple On Couch

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    #10

    Sunday School

    Sunday School

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    JM
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    all the different facial expressions in response to being photographed

    #11

    Grandmother Sorting Playing Cards

    Grandmother Sorting Playing Cards

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    Diolla
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    She looks like one of my grandmas..... She passed away 15 years ago.

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    #13

    Granddaddy And Sank Fishing

    Granddaddy And Sank Fishing

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    #15

    Self-Portrait At Dining Room Table

    Self-Portrait At Dining Room Table

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    #16

    Granddaddy And Lind With Irrigation System

    Granddaddy And Lind With Irrigation System

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    JM
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I didn’t realize those things are so big - I’ve only ever seen them from a moving car.

    #17

    Dedrick At Gravesite

    Dedrick At Gravesite

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    #18

    Cheryl On Bed

    Cheryl On Bed

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    Aria Whitaker
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That crooked picture above the bed is making my eye twitch....I just wanna reach through and fix it!!

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    #20

    Chloe At Ish's Bar

    Chloe At Ish's Bar

    © Lisa Mccord Report

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    Hugh Cookson
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Damn, how poor is this community ? Woodchip walled bar with a bare bulb for that gritty ambience ?

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