The other weekend, I saw my friend Thalassa from RISD and some contemporary photography at The Southern gallery in Charleston. I have to say, it’s comforting to see someone from RISD again, and Thalassa is the sweetest. She was in the grad program, but the photography department was so tight-knit that we all got to know each other and each other’s work. Plus there’s only so many people that can understand the long nights in studio, five hour critiques, and the fun we had being photo nerds.

Thalassa had a beautiful photography piece in a show called Paradise Road | Paradise Out-Front at The Southern. The show featured Eliot Dudik’s series Paradise Road, in which he traveled the U.S. photographing roads with the same name. The result is a collection of incredibly detailed prints that speak to the state of the American Dream in today’s culture. Eliot asked 13 artists he admired to respond with artwork that spoke to their own idea of paradise, and that’s where Thalassa’s piece about finding paradise amidst loss came in. Her print is so rich and velvety my boyfriend Hunter couldn’t believe it was a photograph and not a painting. 

I haven’t had the chance to see a photo show like this since I graduated from RISD, and it totally breathed new life into me. I’ve been focused on building my photo business this past year, but I love thinking about photographs in this more critical way. I’m so grateful 14 artists packed their work into this little but fantastic gallery in Charleston. Props to The Southern for putting on a great show! 

Thalassa and Eliot were kind enough to invite Hunter and me for a boat ride to Caper’s Island the day after the show opening. Caper’s is an undeveloped barrier island with a “bone-yard” of dead trees left behind by erosion and bleached white from the sun. We walked along the beach and explored for nearly two hours. Thalassa gathered an epic star fish collection and we saw a pod of dolphins on our way back.