While living in Water Valley, Mississippi between 2012 and 2014, I struggled to make any work. Having just moved there from Istanbul after nearly a decade abroad, my experience of this town in the Deep South could not go beyond that of an outsider. There was too much under the surface that I could not understand or reconcile, and eventually I moved away. But I continued to be drawn to that unknowing, and I kept coming back. Things finally opened up when I returned without a camera to collaborate with a few friends on a sewing project. Sitting around a quilting frame with a group of women listening to podcasts and telling stories while sewing for two weeks straight finally made me feel like I was part of a community, and over the next two years, I photographed the women in this sewing circle. By mixing and matching objects and locations and people, and working collaboratively, I explored what it was about this group of women that had suddenly made me attracted me to qualities of “womanhood” that I had always run away from.
Published by TBW Books with an essay by Rebecca Bengal.
In the Press:
Kim Beil & Tarrah Krajnak in conversation
Aperture / Paris Photo Book Awards
Discussion with Susan Meiselas for Aperture/Paris Photo Shortlist