One of those great things we say when exasperated! I’m sitting here fretting today about all my coastal family and friends. As I write, many are getting a mandatory evacuation notice as Hurricane Matthew barrels towards the southeastern coast. My aunt and uncle left their home in Pt. Wentworth, Georgia today to travel towards Atlanta. We have friends in Deland, Florida, and family just inland in Hampton, South Carolina.
There is so much I love about the Deep South, including what I have pictured here in two images I pulled from a collection made traveling along Highway 17 from Savannah to St. Mary’s, Georgia. The rural decay – once bustling towns now desolate as I-95 bypasses the old Highway 17 corridor. The low country marshes at or below sea level, where trees grow together into canopies and the thickets are so dense you can’t see through them. You can feel the humidity as it drips off every living thing but that light…now this is where you find that beautiful southern light. It manages to penetrate those canopies and glisten off everything that is even just the slightest bit damp.
Coastal Georgia
This whole area is under the current mandatory evacuation. Really, that’s what made me pull all these negatives and walk down memory lane today. I remember my passion and effort and, the numerous trips up and down this highway to complete my project. I shot the whole thing with a Fuji 6×9 film camera. This is one cool camera – the 90mm lens is sharp as a tack, and that 6×9 negative, well, it’s a 35mm on steroids! I love it! The details are exquisite and well worth exploring if you can get your hands on one.
I think a trip back may be in order in the not-to-distant future. I’d like to travel that route again, and take a whole new batch of photographs. Maybe this time, 4×5, or better yet, wet collodion!
Keep our coastal family and friends in your thoughts, and let’s all hope Matthew takes an easterly turn and heads out into the Atlantic.
Highway 17, Coastal Georgia