A Stranger in Atlanta

Stranger, Atlanta, GA, 1999

In the Summer of 99, I was desperate to escape Athens, so I subleased a room in Atlanta. I never got a job that summer (typical) but I did go to Georgia State full time, taking 3 art courses: intro to 3-D, drawing 2, and a film theory class. I knew some people in Atlanta but it was the first time I actually lived in the city. Besides extreme boy chasing that summer, I explored quite a bit of Atlanta on foot with camera. My default subject has always been the unknown, whether its strangers I pass on the street or breaking into abandoned places. That's what I shoot when I don't know what to shoot. I rarely show either.

Back then I kind of had this formula with portraits. Most of the time the subject stood in front of a mural or brightly colored wall and the colors in their clothes matched the wall in someway. I never really placed them anywhere, maybe I would ask them to move a couple of steps over one way or another. But for the most part it was how I saw them, where I stopped them. It was like a game for me. Matching the world up, trying to spot relationships in form, color, and/or content. I want to add more images from that summer of getting to know Atlanta but I currently don't have access to a scanner. Boo.