July 2014
Artist’s Statement
The American South exists in its own unique dimension of time, caught in juxtaposition between truth and myth. The sense of place I experience within the Southern environment is profound and a product, I believe, of place memory: information stored by the environment and retrieved through extrasensory perception. As a result of place memory I am provided with the comfort of deja visite, or the feeling that a location is familiar despite the fact that, in the present, it is a new experience. My work is an investigation of the manifestation of this sensation. Is it history imprinted upon the environment, stored within the water molecules, the humidity? Perhaps it is the human ability to cognitively remember the feeling of a place and bestow upon that place an alternate past, a life of its own, quite different from the way it is remembered or experienced by others. Whatever the cause, the Southern environment conveys a sense of pride, regret, and an overwhelming sense of the tragic. Place is at the heart of who we are culturally, and over time, the places we inhabit define our sense of self. Through it all is the water, flowing slowly, and incessantly. In the South, water is omnipresent.
Biography
My name is Evan Leavitt. I photograph the South. Over the years I have been a historian, archaeologist, graphic designer, and librarian but photography has always been my passion. I was born and raised in the South, and live here today.
