Shannon Palmer: Queering the Southern States
The reality of queer people in the American Deep South is shown through the Queering the Southern States project. Shannon Palmer, “a lesbian from a small conservative Southern town,” photographs members of the LGBT community in the private spaces of their homes, such as their bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. Palmer aims to understand how people interact in spaces that are their “home,” while also being surrounded by a place that can often be hostile and unwelcoming.
As Palmer states herself, “…I seek to capture both the vulnerability and intimacy of being queer in the Deep South, and to remind the beautiful people who sit in front of my camera that they deserve dignity and respect.”
What inspired your photo series Queering the Southern States?
I was inspired by my friends and my wife, first and foremost. When I moved to Shreveport from Minden in 2008, I was fortunate enough to find myself in the midst of a wonderful community of queer friends. Many of them had been living out and proud for several years, and for me that was a very new prospect. I had just come out and was very nervous about what it would be like to be so open and honest about who I was, especially here in the South. These new friends inspired me to be true to myself without fear, and many of them ended up being subjects in this body of work.
What part of this whole process – from thinking of the concept to seeing the final look – was the most rewarding to you?
It’s a tough question because so many aspects of this project have been rewarding. But if I had to pick, I would say the experience of working with the subjects in the book was the most rewarding part: spending time with them, talking about their lives and their experiences as queer people in the South. Not only do these conversations make my subjects more comfortable in front of my camera, but it also makes me feel more comfortable and gives me insight into how to best capture the moments I want to find with them. There’s a real intimacy involved in the process, and my main goal is to have that intimacy between myself and the subject come through so that the viewer can feel this for themselves. As someone who values personal connections, this was a hugely important part of creating this body of work.
What are your relationships with your fantastic subjects? How did you go about setting up the shot?
Most of them are my friends. Many have been my friends for well over a decade. My wife is in many of the images, and a few were people I only met the day I made their photographs.
For each shoot, the process was different. In some cases, I set up lighting; in others, I used the natural light. Some shots were planned out and others were spontaneous. It all depended on my relationship to each subject, the environment, and the light that we had available. All but one of these images on display were shot using medium and large format film cameras, but one was taken at night using my iPhone. That one was shot after a day of fishing in the Gulf with a friend from South Louisiana who was showing my wife and I how to prepare the fresh shrimp to be cooked. You can’t get much more Southern than that! (Except, of course, perhaps the image of my wife canoeing through the cypress trees. That’s also a very Southern experience!)
If you have one, which photo/subject stands out the most to you? Why? And if not, why?
I think maybe the photograph of Randy would be the one that really grabs my attention. There’s something about the intensity of his gaze into the camera, and therefore right at the viewer, that I can’t get enough of.
How have people reacted to your work?
So far, people seem to have been really moved by it, and I’m very pleased to see that they’ve been experiencing the feeling of intimacy that I hoped to create with these images. After years of working on the project, it’s been very enlightening to hear the perspective of other people, and I hope to be able to hear more as time goes on.
How have you seen members of the queer community be affected by “Religious Freedom” laws pertaining to medical care?
As far as I know, I haven’t known anyone who has been directly affected by these laws, other than to feel that we’ve been dehumanized. Just knowing that elected officials are spending their time trying to defeat us is very damaging and hurtful. I often wonder what their end goal might be. It sometimes feels that they won’t be happy until we no longer exist, or until we all go back to hiding in closets. Of course, all that does is make us want to be louder and further out into the open. The queer community is a resilient one!
For young people who may be becoming aware of their sexuality, especially in the South, what do you hope they gain and/or learn from viewing Queering the Southern States? What about those that are allies to the LBGT+ community?
I hope that young people dealing with their sexuality in the South or any other region that is heavily rural and conservative will see the confidence and self-love that my subjects have, and that they will understand that they too can build a life that is full and satisfying. I hope that allies will continue to fight for us and love us, and that seeing members of the queer community in all of our human vulnerability will motivate them to keep supporting us.
Queering the Southern States is on display at the Meadows Museum from September 1 - October 2, 2021. See more of Shannon’s work here.