“Nothing in the world is a matter of black and white, not even in Mississippi, where everything is a matter of black and white” – Richard Rubin. This quote goes to the core of my personal project: recording 'real life' in small communities throughout Mississippi through a series of road trips using black-and-white film and vintage cameras as a way to understand the place I now live. The sometimes resulting imperfections, soft focus and vignetting serve as markers for how landscape, race and religion have played a part in the complicated history of Mississippi and still affect lives today.
Betty Press is a fine art photographer. Her current project deals with living in Mississippi and trying to better understand the “place” where she now lives. In 2012 she received a statewide award in photography and in 2019 a Visual Artist Grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission.Her photographs have been widely exhibited and collected around the world as well as being selected for many juried competitions. In 2011 she published her first award winning photobook. Her work has been featured in Lens Culture, Shots, Silvershotz, South x Southeast, Lenscratch, ACurator, RfotoFolio, F-Stop.
