Kickstarter

The ninth annual Juke Joint Festival takes place in Clarksdale, Mississippi from April 12-15, 2012.  I have wanted to make a trip to this festival for the last several years and, with your help, am hoping to finally make it this year and take photographs all along the way.  I will be looking at an unfamiliar American landscape on this trip, and searching for images that move me; stillness on schoolyards, sparks in strangers and glints in darkness.  

With your funding support, and the participation of one of my regular deli customers who has vacation time, a sense of adventure, a love of art and a willingness to donate his vehicle and half the gas for the trip - I will drive along the southern route on highway 40 from my home in Oakland, CA to Clarksdale, MS, stopping to photograph along the way in cities like Winslow, AZ, Gallup, NM, Amarillo, TX, Oaklahoma City, OK and Little Rock, AR.  I plan to photograph at the festival, and then all along the way back home in cities like Memphis, TN, St. Louis, MO, Topeka, KS, Denver, CO and Salt Lake City, UT on the northern route of highways 70 and 80.

With the images from this trip, I will create a photography book entitled, "Call & Response;  A Photographic Journey Into the Heart of the Deep South" which will be given to supporters as one of the rewards for funding participation in this project as well as be available for purchase online.  

I have been taking photographs with Instamatics, Polaroids or point and shoot cameras for as long as I can remember, but since receiving a birthday gift of a Nikon camera in the fall of 2010, it has been my objective to create fine art photographs for exhibition, publication and sale.  I exhibited my photographs in four photography shows in 2011 and have been published in several online publications.  Your funding participation in this Call & Response expedition will not only help me complete this specific photo project but will also help me move forward with my long term fine art photography objectives. Please have a look at the fun rewards I can offer you as a thanks for your funding participation.  In addition to these rewards, I will be forever grateful to you for any amount you are able to offer to help me meet my goal of $1700. 

This project is a call... from the Deep South to me and from me to you.  Thank you so much for your interest and for your support. 

You can see more of my photography by visiting the links below:

http://cheriechavezphoto.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thequietsilentseconds

Credit and thank you to Brandon Tauszik for his kindness and the deft skills he contributed to this Kickstarter campaign.