The southern states are very special to me. My family moved to Savannah when I was twelve years old, and into a neighborhood where my mom’s family lived. I was close to my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. Growing up so close to family made all the difference in the world to me. The support system, and the encouragement to pursue my dreams was always felt. I attended the Savannah College of Art and Design, I met my husband in Atlanta, and I got to know his extended family in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. I love to photograph the South. My undergraduate thesis was made along Highway 17, a sort of “left behind” thoroughfare in the shadow of I-95. I documented the slow decline of those towns along that route, and that love of photographing the left behind, or forgotten has never been far from my creative ideas.