The Winds that Change | The Land that Lingers is a selection of images from a three year long project where I traveled to my mother’s hometown of Ardmore, Oklahoma. During the process of documenting my family, I put the pieces together. I became interested in the town of Ardmore, OK as the backdrop to my narrative, and its influential role in raising seven generations of my mother's family. My mother referred to Ardmore as a utopia as a child. Unfortunately, the Ardmore that exists now is not the same. An opioid epidemic and the War on Drugs hit Ardmore, and black people were disproportionately arrested and sentenced. After integration, tactics like redlining put black communities at a disadvantage. Everyone believes the industrial plant on the train tracks that separate the predominantly black population of the town from the city, has caused illnesses for generations but is ignored. Lack of funding in these communities led to the closing down of quality schools, health facilities, and businesses. Most of my family still live in the town, and have seen and felt the devastating effects of the changes in the community. Every time my mother goes back she feels like the Ardmore she knew disappears more and more. Through the project I tried to catalogue what is left of the town and of my family’s history. Questioning the limitations of photography to capture what no longer exists. I purposely limit the accessibility into these images, but begin to zoom out using moving images and oral history to begin to fill in the gaps of the narrative.
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