About this project
Redlegs is a slang term for the Irish that were brought to the West Indies in the mid-17th century as slaves and indentured servants. This project is about photographing the old slave holding plantations in the West Indies and South Carolina, writing a short story about the Redlegs, and designing a book of the photos and story.
I’ve completed the first phase of this project photographing former slave holding plantation ruins on the island of St. John over the past 2 years. The photographs shown here and in the video are from that 1st phase of the project. This part of the project is complete.
This kickstarter project is about raising funds for the second phase of the project, which is to bringing the photography to South Carolina. Many of the plantation owners and slaves migrated to Charleston during and after slave revolts in the West Indies in the early to mid 18th century. Charleston was a colony of England at that time. I will be visiting the remaining plantation sites around Charleston, and photographing the buildings and landscapes.
The goal of this kickstarter project is to fund a shoestring trip to the Charleston region to visit and photograph the different plantations for about five days, and also do on the ground research for the writing portion of the project. Any donations raised that exceed the goal will be put toward the final phase of the project, which is publishing a fine art quality book.
The writing portion of the project is a fictional short story which traces a distant relative of an Irish slave back to the west indies, exploring the ruins there, and discovering a network of relations and magic that is still alive.
At the end of this second phase I hope to have enough material to then move onto the final phase of the project, which will be to produce a fine art quality book of the photographs and short story. The book design is part of this phase, and I am offering signed limited edition versions of this design phase book as rewards to kickstarter contributors. This book will utilize print on demand technology to test various layout ideas, graphics, and covers. Ultimately one of these design layouts will be carried over into the final book in a future phase of the project.
Other rewards will include postcards from the Charleston trip, and various sized signed prints printed on fine art quality paper.
Thank you for checking out my project, it’s an exciting one, it looks at an important and difficult part of our history. Tracing history has been an important part of my work for many years. This project in particular is exciting for me because I will be combining photographs with my writing, I think it will make for a strong presentation. Cheers!
I’ve been a photographer for about 25 years, have worked on numerous self published books, have been published in photography publications, including Lenswork, and had my first official book Modern Ruins - Portraits of Place published by Penn State University Press in September 2010. I have a very keen interest in photo book design, and that is part of this project.
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Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on December 23.
Pledge $10 or more Pledge $10 or more
A Thank You for supporting this project and a postcard from Charleston S.C.
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
Two signed 5x7 prints from the South Carolina or West Indies photo shoot.
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
Two signed 5x7 plus one signed 8x10 prints from South Carolina or West Indies shoot.
Pledge $75 or more Pledge $75 or more
One signed 8x10 plus one signed 13x19 prints from South Carolina or West Indies shoot.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
A copy of the signed limited edition book plus two signed 8x10 prints from South Carolina or West Indies shoot.
Pledge $200 or more Pledge $200 or more
A copy of the signed limited edition book plus two signed 13x19 prints from the South Carolina or West Indies shoot.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
Two signed copies of the limited edition book, plus two signed 17x22 prints from the South Carolina or West Indies shoots. Your name will be included in the acknowledgments section of the book.
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
Four signed copies of the limited edition book, plus four signed 17x22 prints from the South Carolina or West Indies shoots. Your name will be included in the acknowledgments of the book.
Project By
Connected as Shaun O'Boyle (44 friends)
I'm a photographer, and run the oboylephoto website and blog. My book "Modern Ruins: Portraits of Place in the Mid-Atlantic Region" was published by Penn State University Press in 2010. I was featured in George Barr's book "Why Photographs Work" published in 2010. I enjoy designing my own books and have five self-published photography books of my personal projects. My work has been published in various publications and books, including the weird NJ series, and a feature article and cover in the highly regarded Lenswork photography magazine.
