Title: South bound

Identifier: SOAD5307   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/55253)

Description: Print: photographic by Bruce Lee Soles for Spring 2014 in ART4250. Silver gelatin print. Artist statement: The South now feels stuck. Caught between maintaining traditions and memories from years past and moving into the rapidly expanding global economy. Metropolitan areas such as Charlotte, Atlanta, and Jacksonville, Florida have made this jump, but they may have sacrificed the memories. My memories, my nostalgia of years past, serve as a jumping off point for this body of work. Capturing the images that stir memories of the place I have always called home. Born and raised in rural Eastern North Carolina, I remember growing up surrounded by forests and farmland, watching the rows quickly change with perspective as we rode down the highway. Small convenience stores dotting the highway seemingly in the middle of nothing where old men gathered to tell stories. Family gatherings with the whole family; not just mom, dad and sister, were a must. So was the music; The Allman Brothers Band, Johnny Cash, B.B. King…and the list goes on. This was and is a culture that has existed long before myself, or even my parents, and in some respects before my grandparents. These moments in time are not just relegated to my childhood, these are the memories and scenes of the American South.