Bless Your Heart is a photography project by Grant Ellis to go back to the Mississippi Delta and finish a body of work.
"Bless Your Heart" is a photography project. The goal of this project is to return to the Mississippi Delta and complete a photo series that I've been developing for several years.
I am from Cleveland, Mississippi, a town right in the heart of the Delta. At 16 I got a car and a camera, and I would drive around and photograph anything that caught my attention. Now as an adult I still do the same thing, I just might take better pictures.
If I reach my goal I promise I will take an amazing collection of photos. The funds would allow me to spend more time in Mississippi around the summer months. It's rare that I get to go home in the summer, and I believe this will be the best time to shoot there. While most bodies of work based on this area tell a very one-sided story, namely poverty, I'd like to have the chance to tell a more complete story. I want to go to a high school prom. I want to go drag racing with teenagers on a Saturday night. I want to visit churches. I want to spend time on the river with fishermen. I want to go on hunts. I want to visit farms, juke joints, and jails. I want to tell a local's story. I have a good idea of what I would like to shoot to make this complete, it just requires time and funding.
This work is the most important and longest-running project I have ever done. It's based on my home, so I have to make something that will represent the place I'm from. My final goal for this work is to show it in galleries and also have the work published by a professional publishing company. But my goal right now is to shoot, so please donate!
This is a low-risk project because I have been a professional photographer for several years and know how to work quickly and efficiently and adapt to situations. These photographs will not be art-directed or staged, so there is no risk of the kind of failures associated with a film production. I have a backup camera in case my primary one breaks. And the budget will allow me to stay in the area long enough to work around inclement weather. The biggest risk is probably personal injury, in which case I could escrow the funds for after my speedy recovery.
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