“Cotton Land” is an exploration of communities in the Mississippi Delta. The Mississippi Delta is an iconic region lying between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, running from Memphis, TN to Vicksburg, MS. The Delta evokes visions of sharecroppers, plantations and, of course, the sound of the Blues. The area has a small wealthy gentry and a large impoverished underclass living in dilapidated houses and tilting trailers. The Delta is one of the poorest places in the United States with the saddest infant mortality rate, rampant unemployment and little hope for a better future. What is little known is the warmth, resilience, community and family cohesiveness of its people.
The Delta images have been created for a book titled “New Delta Rising”, distributed by the University Press of Mississippi. The photographs are the result of 12 weeks, 9 trips, and more then 10,000 miles of crisscrossing the Delta in search of people and their stories.