Leslie Addison writes:

Because of our desire to work interpretively, these photographs were taken with a toy camera.  The nature of the plastic lens, light leaks and vignetting of the edges lent our pictures a moody lack of clarity, characteristic of memories.  Sometimes, we used multiple exposures to reveal the chaotic and confusing layers of memory and create overlapping time sequences.  We were also drawn to the analogy of using a toy to capture and describe the visual experiences of our childhood and the physical places of our ancestors' past.  The camera encouraged us to work intuitively without the normal preoccupations of composition and exposure (as the camera's viewfinder is incorrect and there is almost no exposure control).

In the beginning this project was personal - a private book for our children and families.  But during the project, as we talked to our friends, we became convinced of the universality of our subject.

George's family is from the Vicksburg, Mississippi area and from the Delta on both the Louisiana and Mississippi sides of the river.  His great-grandfather F.L. Maxwell arrived there with Grant's army and later, after the War, came back to settle on the same land on which the army had camped.

My family settled on the Natchez Trace in the 1820's along Bayou Pierre near Port Gibson, Mississippi.  Eventually my great-grandmother Mary McGilvary would become a child spy for the Confederacy, carrying messages across Union lines.

So our ancestors shared a common bond of proximity and our family mythologies have shared attributes.  But our children are scattered.  We are wanderers by nature.  And these ties are dissolving.

This is symbolic of much of old Southern life and families.  And relevant to everyone with memories and dreams - new or distant.