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JARED RAGLAND

Birmingham, Ala.

WORK

Good Bad People
 Where You Come From is Gone
Where the Train Goes Slow
 Untitled (Friday May 3 - 1963...)
Everything Is Going To Be All Right
One Day Projects
 Shift // Tangent
 Shift // Babel
 Grey Lodge Wisdom
eequivalentss

RESEARCH + TEACHING

Research Statement
Teaching Philosophy


NEWS

– Wiregrass Museum of Art/Alabama Bicentennial Commission announces artist-in-residence project
– SOME MILLION MILES premieres at Indie Grits Festival
– Looking at Appalachia at Massillon Museum
– Where You Come From is Gone opens at Staple Goods
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ABOUT

Jared Ragland is a fine art and documentary photographer and former White House photo editor. He is at work on a long-term documentary on methamphetamine use in rural northeast Alabama and currently teaches and coordinates exhibitions and community outreach programs in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Read more ︎︎

+1 202 436 1082
 jared@jaredragland.com


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NEWS


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Current/upcoming exhibitions + projects:

Recent exhibitions + projects:
See recent features in: Forbes, TIME, Oxford American, FotoRoom, Dear Dave, Saint-Lucy, Before the Abstract, and The Heavy Collective.  


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4.04.19 // WIREGRASS MUSEUM OF ART / ALABAMA BICENTENNIAL COMMISSION ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROJECT
Cherokee Rock Village, Cherokee County, Alabama, from the series Where You Come From is Gone, 2017

DOTHAN, Alabama - April 4, 2019 - The Wiregrass Museum of Art (WMA) is pleased to announce that Birmingham, Alabama-based photographers Cary Norton and Jared Ragland, collectively known as GUSDUGGER, will be in residence at WMA April 18- 20. The residency, a regional extension of Norton and Ragland's project "Where You Come From is Gone," will document sacred Native American sites in the Wiregrass region using the 19th-century, wet-plate collodion tintype process with vintage, large-format cameras, hand-crafted chemistry and a mobile darkroom. The residency has been organized as part of WMA's three-year-long schedule of exhibitions and programs in celebration of Alabama's bicentennial, officially observed in 2019 with the theme "Sharing Our Stories."

"WMA is working this year to showcase the stories that make the Wiregrass special, and I am thrilled to offer a residency to such unique artists and storytellers. Their use of traditional photography methods to capture the current conditions of historic sites was a compelling reason to partner with them for Alabama's bicentennial. This is also an opportunity for the Wiregrass to be represented in a statewide project that highlights the lost stories of our region," said Dana-Marie Lemmer, director and curator of the Wiregrass Museum of Art.

Created in 2016, "Where You Come From is Gone" explores the importance of place, the passage of time, and the political dimensions of remembrance through the wet-plate collodion photographic process. Norton and Ragland's images seek to make known a history that has largely been eliminated and to make visible the erasure that occurred in the American South between Hernando DeSoto's first exploration of native peoples in the 16th century and Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act 300 years later.

Using a 100-year-old field camera and a custom, portable darkroom tailored to Ragland's 4x4 truck, the two photographers have journeyed more than 2,000 miles across 20 Alabama counties to locate, visit, and photograph indigenous sites.

"Our work with tintypes began simply as an experiment to learn the process, but I'm always looking for a way to engage in critical, social, and political issues pertinent to where I live," said Jared Ragland.

"As Cary and I began by making portraits of local artists and creatives, we also shared a desire to move out into the landscape and see the state. As we journeyed into the Alabama landscape, our attention was drawn to native place names - such as Cahaba, Talladega, Coosa - names that were of course immediately familiar, but for which we had no real deep historical knowledge or contexts. So by making these images, we built a way to learn about a history that's not told in most schoolbooks or on roadside historic markers," said Ragland.

Norton and Ragland's residency at WMA has been made possible by the Alabama Bicentennial Commission.

"The bicentennial is an occasion to look back at our history, and 'Where You Come From Is Gone' does that in an especially beautiful and evocative way. The images provoke the viewer to think about the passage of time and its effect on a place, and the fact that in many ways the history in these places has been erased makes the works even more moving. We think these pieces will inspire viewers to be more curious about the history of place both visible and invisible," said Jay Lamar, executive director of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission.

The Wiregrass Museum of Art has received generous support from the Alabama Bicentennial Commission and the Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA) for its schedule of bicentennial programming beginning in 2017. In addition to supporting the artist-in-residence program with Cary Norton and Jared Ragland, the Alabama Bicentennial Commission is WMA's partner for Stories of the Wiregrass, a digital archive that invites residents of eight Wiregrass counties to share stories with their community through the end of 2019. Combined support from the Alabama Bicentennial Commission and ASCA made possible "Semiotic Compass," a public sculpture designed and built by Dothan, Alabama-based architect Jason Schmidt and artist Michael Riddle. The sculpture was commissioned specifically for the bicentennial and is intended to spur conversation both at the installation site and among the local and regional community. Other projects were made possible through a multi-year award from ASCA and include the 2017 exhibition "Museum of Wonder," featuring work by Seale, Alabama's Butch Anthony, as well as the 2018 exhibition "Alabama Reckoner," featuring mixed-media portraits of Alabama artists by Birmingham, Alabama-based artist Doug Baulos.

Additional information on individual exhibitions and projects can be found on WMA's website at wiregrassmuseum.org/exhibitions.

On April 18 at WMA's Art After Hours (5:30 - 8 p.m.), the museum's quarterly celebration of new exhibition openings, Norton and Ragland will offer offer tintype portrait sittings. Each unique 4×5 inch plate will be made on site, then varnished and delivered several weeks after the sitting with a high resolution digital scan.

Sittings are limited to one person per portrait. The cost is $65 and reservations are required. To register for a 15-minute portrait session, guests should visit the April 18 listing on WMA's online events calendar: wiregrassmuseum.org/calendar.

The Wiregrass Museum of Art inspires a lifelong appreciation for the visual arts by providing innovative educational programs that engage diverse audiences through the collection and exhibition of quality works. Since its founding in 1988, WMA has offered educational programs, nationally-acclaimed art exhibitions and community events throughout the year. Its Board of Trustees guides the long-term vision and strategic goals, while its membership, City and County support, and grant funding provide the resources needed to fulfill its mission.

Created to guide and support the commemoration of the anniversary of Alabama's statehood, the twelve-member Alabama Bicentennial Commission is chaired by Senator Arthur Orr of Decatur. Beginning in 2013, the commission established committees to plan and coordinate events and activities centered on education, statewide initiatives, and local activities. These committees draw their membership from local government, small businesses and national corporations, volunteer organizations, schools and colleges, and everyday citizens who want to contribute.


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03.28.19 // SOME MILLION MILES PREMIERES AT INDIE GRITS FILM FESTIVAL, COLUMBIA, SC



SOME MILLION MILES, co-directed with Adam Forrester, premiered at the 13th annual Indie Grits Film Festival in Columbia, South Carolina, Thursday, March 28. The short documentary film was produced with generous support from an Indie Grits Rural Project Grant.

About SOME MILLION MILES:
Atop Sand Mountain, a sandstone plateau in northeast Alabama infamous for poultry processing, Pentecostal snake-handling, and meth production, we meet Chico, Alice, and Misty, whose lives have been shaped by methamphetamine use. Chico struggles with reintegration into society following a jail sentence; Alice pursues recovery and fights for custody of her daughter; and Misty rebuilds a stable life after ending an abusive relationship. Set within a rural landscape of abundant beauty and deep poverty, SOME MILLION MILES presents a meditation on loss and the search for redemption amidst systemic social and economic marginalization.

Indie Grits Labs is a non-profit organization that works to serve communities through media education, artist driven projects, and the Indie Grits Festival in Columbia, South Carolina. The Indie Grits Festival is a four-day event that celebrates gritty, contemporary culture of the South through film, art and music. Propelled by a far-flung artistic vision, festival organizers seek to break down the walls intimidating Southern media makers by creating exhibition opportunities for work often overlooked elsewhere.


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03.23.19 // LOOKING AT APPALACHIA AT MASSILLON MUSEUM, MAR. 23–JUNE 2



Several works from Good Bad People are included in the latest Looking at Appalachia traveling exhibition.  First stop is the Massillon Museum in Massillon, Ohio, programmed in conjunction with the NEA Big Read program. The exhibit runs from March 23 - June 2, 2019 in the Aultman Health Foundation Gallery. On Friday, April 12, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m., project director Roger May will speak about the project’s mission to explore the region’s diversity through photographs.

In an attempt to explore the diversity of Appalachia and establish a visual counter point, the Looking at Appalachia project considers Appalachia fifty years after the declaration of the War on Poverty. Drawing from a diverse population of photographers within the region, the crowdsourced image archive serves as a reference that is defined by its people as opposed to political legislation. Designed and directed by Roger May, the project is now in its fifth year.


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03.01.19 // WHERE YOU COME FROM IS GONE AT STAPLE GOODS, NEW ORLEANS, MAR. 9–APR. 7


Garrett Cemetery, Cherokee County, Alabama, from the series Where You Come From is Gone, 2017

New Orleans, La. – Staple Goods is pleased to announce the opening of Where You Come From is Gone, an exhibition by Alabama-based collaborative duo Jared Ragland and Cary Norton. The exhibition will run March 9–April 7, 2019, with an opening reception scheduled for Saturday, March 9, 6:00-9:00 pm, during the St. Claude Art District’s Second Saturday gallery openings. Gallery hours are Saturdays and Sundays, 12:00-5:00pm, except for Second Saturdays when hours are 6:00-9:00 pm.

Where You Come From is Gone explores the importance of place, the passage of time, and the political dimensions of remembrance through the historical wet-plate collodion photographic process. Created on the eve of Alabama’s bicentennial, Ragland and Norton’s large-scale images seek to make known a history that has largely been eliminated and make visible the erasure that occurred in the American South between Hernando DeSoto’s first exploitation of native peoples in the 16th century and Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act 300 years later.

Using a 100-year-old field camera and a custom portable darkroom tailored to Ragland’s 4x4 truck, the two photographers journeyed more than 1,500 miles across 20 Alabama counties to locate, visit, and photograph indigenous sites using the historic wet-plate collodion tintype process. Yet the landscapes hold no obvious vestiges of the Native American cultures that once inhabited the site; what one might expect to see, preserve, or remember is already gone.

Through reasoned confrontation with our history and resistance toward (willful or accidental) cultural amnesia, Where You Come From is Gone provides a defense against the sort of ignorance that threatens democracy and enables totalitarianism and cautions us to be vigilant in guarding against altering, erasing, or “forgetting” our past,” writes art historian Catherine Wilkins, Ph.D., University of South Florida.

As such, Ragland and Norton’s pictures serve as a type of subtle activism by focusing on personal and collective memorymaking. “At this current moment in American life, the act of remembering is political and can have power,” Wilkins says, “and is particularly important at a time when a polarizing president’s policies endanger the environment, dispute Native American land rights, and further disenfranchise marginalized citizens.”

Staple Goods is located at 1340 St. Roch Ave., New Orleans 70117. More information is available at the Staple Goods website.


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02.11.19 // COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE, NEW YORK, FEB. 15

This week I will be at the College Art Association Conference in New York to discuss Where You Come From is Gone with art historian Catherine Wilkins, Ph.D., of the University of South Florida. Our discussion titled, Where You Come From is Gone: Reinhabiting the Ruins of the Native South, will take place during the panel, Below the Mason-Dixon Line: Artists and Historians Considering the South, Friday, February 15, 2-3pm at the New York Hilton Midtown - 3rd Floor, Rendezvous Trianon.  Below the Mason-Dixon Line will be moderated by University of Alabama art historian Rachel Stephens, Ph.D., and feature fellow panelists include Jeremiah Ariaz, Naomi Hood Slipp, Kristin M. Casaletto, and Nell Gottlieb.


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10.29.18 // ALL SORROWS CAN BE BORNE... TO OPEN AT ANTENNA DURING PHOTONOLA, DEC. 8–JAN. 6

Allison Beondé, from the series, At the hands of persons unknown, 2018
I am excited to announce the exhibition, All sorrows can be borne..., co-curated with AnnieLaurie Erickson, will open Dec. 8 at Antenna in New Orleans and run through the annual PhotoNOLA festival.

Featuring Allison Beondé, Rose Marie Cromwell, Amy Elkins, Annie Flanagan, and Jessica Ingram, All sorrows can be borne... questions the traditional roles and expectations of the documentary image. Across the exhibition, these nationally-regarded artists challenge assumed histories, hierarchies, and notions of objective truth through a variety of contemporary photographic, video, and installation works.

The exhibition will run through Jan. 6, 2019 and will be open for extended hours Saturday, Dec. 15, 5-8pm during PhotoNOLA.

Established in 2008 in New Orleans' burgeoning St. Claude arts district, Antenna Gallery emphasizes emerging artists and young curators who focus on collaborations, group and solo shows, and challenging works of video and digital media; at the same time building partnerships with city-wide programming initiatives and national arts initiatives. The space was founded as a collaborative venture and continues to be run and maintained by a collective of artists that draws on the diverse strengths of its 13 members to create exciting and original artist-focused programs.

Antenna is located at 3718 Saint Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70117 and is open Tuesday–Sunday, 12–5pm.


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10.01.18 // ONE DAY PROJECTS: AND LIGHT FOLLOWED THE FLIGHT OF SOUND






Photographers Eliot Dudik and Jared Ragland are pleased to announce their third collaborative One Day Projects artist book publication, And light followed the flight of sound, available October 1 from onedayprojects.org.

On August 21, 2017, the total solar eclipse provided a rare opportunity for people across the United States to experience a collective encounter. Despite the prevalence of contemporary political and cultural polarization, more than 215 million Americans– 88% of the country’s total population – stood side by side and looked skyward together, sharing in a quieting, unifying act.

Inspired by both the natural wonder and symbolic possibilities of this unique occurrence, Dudik and Ragland invited photographers from inside and outside the path of totality to document and share their experiences. The resulting book,And light followed the flight of sound,features 85 images by 52 emergent and established photographic artists. Presented as a 30-foot-long, hand-bound accordion with an enclosed saddle-stitched zine and essay by art historian Catherine Wilkins, Ph.D., University of South Florida, the limited edition of 150 copieswas printed on digital offset, covered in a foil-stamped cloth, and comes housed in a clear Mylar sleeve, also foil stamped. As the book is removed from its sleeve, the foil stamps mimic the passage of the moon in front of the sun. Production of And light followed the flight of sound was made possible by a grant from the College of William & Mary Dean's Fund; portions of the book were edited during a workshop with students from Duke University’s MFA in Experimental & Documentary Arts program.

The book’s title references E. M. Forster’s 1909 dystopian novella, The Machine Stops,in which the human species has become completely reliant upon technology to provide sustenance, deliver information, and mediate relationships. Today, life imitates art, and technology – which once promised to democratize knowledge and provide deep connection – has infiltrated the most intimate moments of our lives, increased individual isolation, provoked partisanship, and proliferated fake news.

“Inan age in which even acceptance of scientific knowledge has become incomplete, divisive, and politicized, the 2017 solar eclipse marked a sought after, albeit temporary, restoration of reason and scientific truth,” said art historian Catherine Wilkins, Ph.D. “The photographs found in And light followed the flight of soundseek to restore viewers’ senses through an embrace of firsthand experience and critical visual reckoning of terrestrial – or celestial – facts.

“Through representational images of the natural world and works invoking historic photographic processes, figures stand agog as sublime skyscapes counter the quotidian in a palindromic sequence punctuated by reflections, phenomena of light and shadow, and geometric forms. Despite a wide variation of styles, approaches, and locations, the photographs in And light followed the flight of sound remind us of our commonality, advance a vision of community regained, and reveal the transcendent power of science and citizenship, activism and art, beauty and imagination.”

To celebrate the release, Candela Books and Gallery in Richmond, Virginia will exhibit the book alongside a selection of works from the project. The show will run November 1–December 22, with a gallery talk on Thursday, November 1, 5-8pm, and an opening reception on Friday, November 2, 5-9pm. See the Candela website for more information.

And light followed the flight of sound artists:


ONE DAY PROJECTS promotes creative dialogue by challenging artists to collaboratively produce and publish innovative projects within a 24-hour time period. More information is available on their website and Instagram.


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10.01.18 // SPE SC JURIED EDUCATOR EXHIBITION OPENS AT FIREHOUSE GALLERY & SPE PRESENTATION


Three works from Where You Come From is Gone are on view at the SPE SC Juried Educator Exhibition at the Firehouse Gallery in Baton Rouge through November 10.  The show opens with a public reception, Friday, October 5, 7-9pm.  The exhibition was curated by Russell Lord, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs at the New Orleans Museum of Art.  The exhibition runs in conjunction with the Society of Photographic Education South Central Regional Conference. Both the conference and exhibition theme is Material + Meaning and brings together shared thematic concerns at the forefront of contemporary photographic practices: the widespread exploration of the aesthetic and physical possibilities of photography and the renewed understanding of the photograph as material object, placed in conversation with the harder-to-pin-down social and political concerns of our time.

While at the conference I will give an artist lecture titled, Where You Come From Is Gone: Examining the Political Dimensions of Remembrance Through the Wet-Plate Collodion Photographic Process.


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08.11.18 // RECENT PHOTOGRAPHS AT THE JAYBIRD

Cat in a carport, Five Points, Wilson, North Carolina.

A selection of recent photographs will open Saturday, August 11, 7-9pm at The Jaybird in Birmingham, Ala.  The show includes work made over summer 2018 while in residence at the Eyes on Main Street photography festival in Wilson, North Carolina. The Jaybird is a homegrown community arts and performance space on 5th Avenue South in the Crestwood neighborhood of Birmingham that features local and regional artists and is home to the Birmingham Zine Library.


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07.26.18 // THE SOUTHERN DISPOSITION OPENS AT INDIE GRITS LABS

Chico, 48. Chico, wearing a Dia de los Muertos mask, sits in his living room under a swastika, the US Constitution, and a Confederate flag.
From GOOD BAD PEOPLE: Methamphetamine Use on Sand Mountain, Marshall County, Ala.
Indie Grits Labs is pleased to announce the opening of The Southern Disposition, an exhibition of photographs from a diverse group of Southern artists. Having sought work that “addresses and challenges the social, cultural, and physical landscapes of the South,” we are excited to showcase submissions from over 30 artists, stationed throughout the Southeast and beyond. Exploring the work of these artists, viewers will see common responses emerge: feelings of emotional, physical, and cultural dislocation. There are familiar moments of melancholy and nostalgia, countered with bold expressions of the marginalized experience within the Southern context. Alongside this, there is a sense of something shifting, signs of an uneasy transition. In a place typically inhospitable to minority voices, the power of the traditional majority is called into question with images of their underlying fragility; and within the expressions of displacement, even within the very act of creating these images, there is a suggestion of defiance – hope for a new generation, struggling to claim its place. This is the Southern Disposition.

The Southern Disposition will be on view July 26-September 27, 2018, at Indie Grits Labs, 1013 Duke Avenue, Columbia, SC.  The exhibition features the above image from the series, GOOD BAD PEOPLE, alongside works by friends Aaron Canipe, Alec Kaus, & Andy McMillan.


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07.20.18 // B18: WIREGRASS BIENNIAL OPENS AT WIREGRASS MUSEUM OF ART

Bessemer Mounds, Jefferson County, Alabama, from the series Where You Come From is Gone, 2017
B18: Wiregrass Biennial
July 20-September 29 
Reception: July 19
Wiregrass Museum of Art, 126 Museum Ave., Dothan, Ala.

B18: Wiregrass Biennial showcases the region’s most talented contemporary artists, illustrating the South’s rich cultural heritage. The exhibition encourages innovative and progressive work that utilizes a variety of art forms and media and will feature paintings, sculptures as well as mixed media, new media, and installation art. This year’s show features forty artists from eight states, including Bessemer Mounds... from the series Where You Come From is Gone. 


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07.05.18 // I SURRENDER, DEAR: UMBRELLA ARTS, NYC

Selection from the series, eequivalentss (Summer Soltice - Fall Equinox, 2015), 2018

I Surrender, Dear
July 10 - August 4, 2018
Reception: July 10, 6-8pm
Umbrella Arts Gallery, 317 E. 9th St, New York

Umbrella Arts Gallery is pleased to host I Surrender, Dear, an exhibition exploring the emotional equalizer of grief, born from the personal experience of curator Frances Jakubek. Fifteen visual artists converse within the space and address aspects of navigating loss and sorrow, acknowledging our shared humanity and forgoing the notion that grief is something better hidden away.

The exhibition opens July 10th with artists Ben Alper, Justin Aversano, Ben Davis, Nina Weinberg Doran, Catherine Druken, Gregg Evans, Camilla Anne Jerome, Michael Joseph, Molly Lamb, Luis Lazo, Rita Maas, Alyssa Meadows, Yasmeen Melius and Jared Ragland. At Umbrella Arts Gallery, 317 E. 9th St., New York; the exhibition runs through August 4th, 2018 with a reception on Tuesday, July 10th, from 6-8pm. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 1-6pm and by appointment.

Grieving is too often taken on as a solitary burden, I Surrender, Dear aims to open dialogue of stigmatized issues and encourage the safety of letting go and surrendering to each emotion we are capable of, without shame. The exhibiting artists visualize their personal experiences with suicide, sexual assault, death, the fragility and deterioration of memory, and hidden burdens with mental health. The viewer is welcomed into this communal space to release from their own silent suffering.


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06.01.18 // EYES ON MAIN STREET RESIDENCY
Through the month of June I will be an artist-in-residence at the the inaugural Eyes on Main Street residency program in Wilson, North Carolina. The residency will coincide with the Eyes on Main Street festival, a large outdoor and indoor photography showcase that transforms the historic downtown into a vibrant gallery of large-scale photographs spanning over six city blocks. While in residence I will be photographing in and around town and regularly posting images to my Instagram feed.  I’ll also be at work editing new images for GOOD BAD PEOPLE and working on a series of collages for an exhibition to open in Birmingham in August.  


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06.01.18 // EYES ON MAIN STREET RESIDENCY
Through the month of June I will be an artist-in-residence at the the inaugural Eyes on Main Street residency program in Wilson, North Carolina. The residency will coincide with the Eyes on Main Street festival, a large outdoor and indoor photography showcase that transforms the historic downtown into a vibrant gallery of large-scale photographs spanning over six city blocks. While in residence I will be photographing in and around town and regularly posting images to my Instagram feed.  I’ll also be at work editing new images for GOOD BAD PEOPLE and working on a series of collages for an exhibition to open in Birmingham in August.  

 
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05.06.18 // PHOTO-EMPHASIS 



GOOD BAD PEOPLE is featured on Photo-Emphasis, alongside an interview about my teaching and the photography area at the UAB Department of Art & Art History.  See the interview here: www.photo-emphasis.com/artists/jared-ragland-2018.

PHOTO–EMPHASIS is a platform for showcasing current and diverse photography made by established and emerging artists and serves as a resource in promoting photographic art, education, and community, for those committed to and newly joining the medium. Through weekly features and interviews, the site highlights work by photography educators, students, and practitioners; providing an opportunity to feature personal projects and share information about their affiliated institution. PHOTO–EMPHASIS was founded by artists Alec Kaus and Rana Young, both University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni, in June 2017.


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05.06.18 // EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT AT THE FRONT

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT will be on view May 12-June 3 at The Front, New Orleans. Originally made in New Orleans in response to Walker Percy’s novel The Moviegoer (which was also set in New Orleans), the project will be exhibited in its entireity and will open with a reception May 12, 6-10pm.  Artist talk at 6pm.

Read the press release here: https://nolafront.org/may-12-june-3-2018/


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03.10.18 // PHOTONOLA 2017 REVIEW PRIZE 

via PhotoNOLA.org –

We are delighted to announce the PhotoNOLA 2017 Review Prize recipients: Congratulations to Rachel Boillot, Susan kae Grant, and Jared Ragland!

PhotoNOLA’s Portfolio Review program offers emerging to established photographers the chance to present their work to influential members of the photographic community. Photographers convene for two days of face-to-face meetings with gallery owners, editors, publishers and museum curators.

After the reviews conclude, each reviewer is asked to note three outstanding projects. The PhotoNOLA 2017 Review Prize Winners are:

1st- Rachel Boillot – Silent Ballad
2nd- Susan kae Grant – Night Journey
3rd- Jared Ragland – Good Bad People

Read the news release here: https://photonola.org/photonola-2017-review-prize-winners-announced/


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02.26.18 // VERMONT CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY 2018 OPEN JURIED EXHIBITION



A diptych of works from EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT has been selected by juror Shane Lavalette, Director of Light Work in Syracuse, NY, for the 2018 Open Juried Exhibition at the Vermont Center for Photography in Brattleboro, VT. The show runs March 2–April 1, 2018 and features 33 photographs made by photographers from around the globe. A closing reception is scheduled for Sunday, April 1, 4-7pm.


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03.01.18 // 2018 SOCIETY OF PHOTOGRAPHIC EDUCATION NATIONAL CONFERENCE 


Jacob Riis, Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street Tenement, 1889

Foreign Domestic: Identification, Differentiation and Related Strategies in Social Documentary Practice: Matt Eich, Annie Flanagan, and Jared Ragland; moderated by Catherine Wilkins, Ph.D.

Friday, March 02 - 9:00AM to 10:45AM
Grand Ballroom Salon G, Philadelphia Downtown Marriot

From Jacob Riis' "How the Other Half Lives" to more recent contemporary documentary projects, photographers have captured the ephemera of everyday life as it coexists with markers of marginalization - poverty, drug use, and domestic violence - to provide points of both familiar connection and disjuncture for viewers. In dialogue with art historian Catherine Wilkins, photographers Matt Eich, Annie Flanagan, and Jared Ragland will discuss their work in struggling American communities and share how they, like Riis, employ the "foreign domestic" to provide richer, more nuanced portraits of people on the periphery while offering viewers opportunities for empathic identification and increased understanding.


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02.26.18 // EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT AT HAMPDEN SYDNEY



A short-term exhibition of Everything Is Going To Be All Right is on view at the Viar-Christ Center for the Arts at Hampden Sydney College in Farmville, VA.  The installation is arranged as an allusion to the Isenheim Altarpiece and turns the new Hampden Sydney College art gallery into a small chapel.

A free, public lecture on the project, is scheduled for Monday, February 26, at 7:00 pm in Hampden-Sydney College's Brinkley Hall.


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01.25.18 // DO IT OPENS AT MOBILE MUSEUM OF ART

What would happen if an exhibition never stopped? Since it began in 1993, with this question being asked by Hans Ulrich Obrist and artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier, do it has become the longest-running and most far-reaching exhibition ever to have happened – constantly evolving and generating evermore relevant new versions of itself. do it has toured to venues from New York to Manchester, Budapest to Salt Lake City, and Kosovo to Moscow. And now, from January 26 to July 1, 2018, do it is opening at the Mobile Museum of Art.

Mobile Museum of Art presents its own reinterpretation of do it with the help of regional artists and community groups. The exhibition features Jared Ragland’s Untitled (Friday May 3 - 1963 / 9 arrested (placards) / Pizitz’s alley 3 P.M. / Hart), a large scale print diptych made in response to Hans-Peter Feldmann’s Homework (or Do It Yourself) (1996).

For more inforation: www.mobilemuseumofart.com/exhibitions/do-it/


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01.23.18 // UNTITLED (HOUSE OF WAX) IN DEAR DAVE, #26


Untitled (House of Wax), 2015 from the series EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT is included in Dear Dave, Magazine #26. The image appears alongside work by Grant Willing, Ben Alper, Bryson Rand, Anastasia Samoylova, Drew Nikonowicz, Czar Kristoff, Daniel Shea and others in a feature curated by Efrem Zelony-Mindell.

http://deardavemagazine.com

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01.19.18 // GOOD BAD PEOPLE FEATURED ON APHOTOEDITOR.COM 


From artist/writer/educator Jonathan Blaustein: (Jared’s work) was the most complete, compelling project I saw, and I voted for it for the Photo NOLA prize.
Jared used to work with Pete Souza in Obama’s White House. (An era that now seems like Martin Sheen’s TV presidency, for all the similarities it shares with contemporary reality.) But Jared is originally from Alabama, and returned home to turn his attention to the meth epidemic that is ravaging the NE part of the state.
The pictures are genuinely visceral, as they make a viewer feel uncomfortable. They show something decidedly ugly, and real, but the strong aesthetics give the ride a bit of turbo boost. Additionally, Jared worked with a sociologist to give the project a sense of academic rigor.
Brilliant stuff.

See the full post at: http://aphotoeditor.com/2018/01/19/the-best-work-i-saw-at-photo-nola-part-1/.


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01.12.18 // GOOD BAD PEOPLE PUBLISHED IN JOURNAL, DEVIANT BEHAVIOR 

Co-authored with Heith Copes, Whitney Tchoula, and Fiona Brookman, “Photo-Elicitation Interviews with Vulnerable Populations: Practical and Ethical Considerations,” has been published in the journal, Deviant Behavior. 

Abstract:
Photo-elicitation is a qualitative interview technique where researchers solicit responses, reactions, and insights from participants by using photographs or other images as stimuli. Images can be researcher-generated or participant-generated and each has particular benefits and challenges. Though not new, the use of images within criminology is an underused technique. In this paper we advocate the use of photo-elicitation techniques suggesting that they offer a powerful addition to standard data collection and presentation techniques. In making our case, we draw on our experiences from an 18-month long photo-ethnography of people living in rural Alabama who use methamphetamine. The ethnography consisted of formal interviews and informal observations with 52 participants and photography of 29 of them. While we draw on our overall experiences from the project we focus specifically on the photographs generated by, and taken of, one key participant—Alice. We demonstrate the benefits and challenges of using photo elicitation interviews with vulnerable individuals such as Alice, by considering themes such as representation, empowerment and emotionality. Additionally, we highlight the practical and ethical issues that confront researchers who incorporate the visual into their research.

Read the full text at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01639625.2017.1407109.


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11.18.17 // UNCOMMON TERRITORY: CONTEMPORARY ART IN ALABAMA OPENS AT MONTGOMERY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

To mark the bicentennial of Alabama’s creation as a territory, this exhibition includes both established makers along with younger, emerging artists to examine the current vitality of artistic creativity found throughout the state. Focusing on new and innovative works produced within the last few years, this survey demonstrates not only a commitment to community and place, but also a dedication to highlighting new viewpoints and practices. Showcasing a mixture of art in various media and two- and three-dimensional forms, the exhibition positions current contemporary artistic practices by artists in Alabama within a broader global context of art making.

The exhibition features two photographs from Where You Come From is Gone and runs through January 21, 2018.

For more information visit: http://mmfa.org/exhibitions/uncommon-territory-contemporary-art-in-alabama/.

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10.05.2017 // GOOD BAD PEOPLE OPENS AT IN/OUT TRANSYLVANIA FOTO FESTIVAL, ROMANIA
A solo exhibition of GOOD BAD PEOPLE will be on view during the 2nd annual In/Out Transylvania Foto Festival, October 6-15 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. In addition to the exhibition, a video slideshow featuring images from GOOD BAD PEOPLE will be screened at an evening event.

The In/Out Transylvania Foto Festival is the first documentary photography festival in Romania and is a project initiated by Fotopia Collective, a photography organization founded to support documentary photography and photojournalism in Romania . 

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07.11.2017 // WHERE YOU COME FROM IS GONE OPENS AT LOWE MILL


Through the spring of 2017 Cary Norton and I have journeyed more than 1,500 miles across 20 Alabama counties to locate, visit, and photograph sites of Native American habitation and removal for our latest GUSDUGGER collaborative wet-plate collodion project. Filmmaker Jason Wallis joined us for a shoot in June and made this video featuring music by Wooden Wand, from the new album, Clipper Ship.
Where You Come From is Gone is currently on view at Lowe Mill's North Floor Gallery in Huntsville, Ala. through Aug. 25.

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07.01.17 // GOOD BAD PEOPLE FEATURED BY FORBES


Alice, 21, from GOOD BAD PEOPLE: Methamphetamine Use on Sand Mountain, Marshall County, Ala.
“Like Larry Clark’s Tulsa, the controversial 1971 book of photographs depicting Clark's own social scene of young people in Tulsa, shooting amphetamine, having sex and playing with guns, Good Bad People could be viewed as sensationalistic. But unlike Tulsa, which uses very little text and relies on the images to tell the story, Ragland and Copes augment the images with extensive captions to provide context for each of their subjects. "With a project like this, it’s easy to sensationalize, to demonize, to really cut short th