Scarlett Hendricks: Southern Dreams: Portrait of the Ideal
What was your inspiration for this collection? Where did the name Southern Dreams come from?
I was raised in Tallulah, Louisiana, a Delta town, only 18 miles from Vicksburg, Mississippi, the site of one of the decisive battles of the American Civil War. Born in 1965, at the end of the centennial celebration and remembrance of that tragedy, how could I not but be shaped by history and memory and myth – and how family fit within that matrix. Hence, my name Scarlett.
I was early on drawn to photography as a way to capture and express feelings about family and home and tradition. I was inspired particularly by a beautiful photographic portrait of my paternal grandmother, taken in the late 1920s. Her portrait spoke – and continues to speak – to me of a world of complicated family connections that could also be aesthetically beautiful.
So...at an early age I developed my passion for what photography might offer: the possibility of capturing a moment of rare insight into someone's spirit; the possibility of imaginatively traveling to a world beyond my own small-town time and place; the possibility that even as generations came and went, a sense of family history, made vibrant by a unique photographic portrait, might live on forever.
Southern History teaches us that Southern Dreams sometimes become Southern Nightmares. But in this collection of portraits, I’ve tried to capture my subjects reflecting their ideal self, a moment of truth that becomes the beautiful.
How did you go about choosing which photographs to include in your exhibition?
I decided to choose some of my most recent work of the past couple of years, work that I’ve felt captures the solitary individual as well as the close relationships between family members.
What is your process when photographing your subjects?
Perhaps the most important part of my process is the consultation before the shoot. I try to learn as much about my subjects as possible, so that during the shoot, the process is collaborative, and that – hopefully – I will know how to encourage my subjects to be as expressive as possible of their inner hopes and dreams. I always try to photograph with the end result in mind, a vision of their best self.
What was the most challenging part of assembling and installing this exhibition?
Deciding which to choose of the many wonderful sessions I’ve had with subjects. That was difficult.
Do you have a favorite photo, or one that you keep going back to look at? Why or why not?
One of my favorite photos is a shot I took of my two children, Hunter and Eliza, when they were about 7 or 8, jumping off the dock at my father’s camp on Lake Bruin, south of Tallulah. It’s at sunset and I captured them in mid-air, leaping into the sun, hands raised, bodies contorted, Eliza’s face, beaming with joy, turned toward Hunter. I’ve always thought they were jumping away from their childhood into their future. But the photo freezes them in that moment, and they’re always with me – in that moment. Henri Cartier-Bresson, the brilliant French photographer, called that “the decisive moment.” They both now live far away. But I walk by that photo in my kitchen – printed large – many times every day – and I remember…and smile. That’s my Southern Dream.
Southern Dreams: Portrait of the Ideal is on display at the Meadows Museum from February 8 –25, 2022. See more of Scarlett’s work here.