410 East Gaston

“410 East Gaston” explores the home life of a Savannah socialite, Diana Rogers. From growing up as an oppressed child in Oklahoma, to singing in a girl band as a timid twenty-something in New Orleans, Diana escaped the South and found refuge in Manhattan. The city embraced her as she sang and danced her way through the eighties until returning to the swampy southern lands, nesting in a Victorian mansion on Gaston Street in Savannah. Fifteen years later, Diana is known as a performer throughout Savannah, but, what I have found the most intriguing about Diana’s life is her home, lovingly littered with vintage dresses and perfectly curved martini glasses.

This body of work, titled “410 East Gaston” explores the home life of a colorful character of the South, Diana Rogers. From growing up as an oppressed child in Oklahoma, to singing in a girl band as a timid twenty-something in New Orleans, Diana escaped the South and found refuge in Manhattan. The city embraced her as she sang and danced her way through the eighties until returning to the swampy southern lands, nesting in a Victorian mansion on Gaston Street in Savannah, Georgia. Fifteen years later, Diana is known as a pianist and singer throughout Savannah, with steady gigs at “The Ol’ Pink House” and “Vicks on the River”, but, what I have found the most intriguing about Diana’s life is her home, lovingly littered with vintage dresses, fur coats, feathered hats and perfectly curved martini glasses.
It is interesting to see that my original intent for this series was to generally depict “the south”, yet the final product is direct, focused and intimate. I have recorded the subject for who they are while maintaining a degree of humanism. Although very willing to share, Diana trusts me as a friend with a listening ear and as an artist who would never exploit her or her environment. It is with this faith and trust from the subject that I was able to create authentic documentation of this remarkable human’s life.
Born in Port Washington, Long Island and raised in North Carolina, I have always been an outsider to the South. While my friends were having “supper” and drinking sweet tea, I was watching the Giants game with my Grandpa. I have never owned anything monogrammed, and I do not use the term “ya’ll”. This is to say that my approach to the south is quite voyeuristic. There is a yearning to belong and assimilate into the culture, yet I can only temporarily scratch the itch.
I am fanatically curious about characters of the South. Maybe the motivation behind this is selfish, as I attempt to discover myself through observing other people, becoming totally consumed in their lives and their stories. Yet, there is rawness in that yearning and vulnerability that enables me to honestly connect with my subjects, consumed in conversation and forgetting at times my goal is to take photographs. My mother will tell you that I do not know a stranger. For me, humans become characters and characters become my subjects. They are fascinating in their own right and I have a yearning to understand and relate to them. Through documenting Diana, I have been personally invited into one aspect of southern culture, shooting over glasses of jalapeño martinis and Savannah gossip.