A Southern Horror - 175 artworks
by Kris Graves

In Summer 2020 a collective uprising rooted in local civic engagements, ricocheted around the world in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. It relied on one of the central pillars of Democracy—peaceful protest. Although grounded in the particular, the embodied actions of the multitudes illuminated larger universal questions of basic human rights and dignity in the 21st century. The echo of empathy, anger and pain born from the eight minutes and 46 seconds of viral video that captured Floyd’s passing, resonated not only in the United States, but in ongoing struggles across the globe.

While this was going on, I photographed memorials, monuments, and sites of the antebellum South and the Confederacy. My friend Marshall (@fu64) and I drove approximately 4000 miles across eight southern states making photographs of every site we could find. Some have been removed, most remain in place.

A Southern Horror by Kris Graves

Southern Horror #140 (Alabama, 2 of 35) by Kris Graves

A Confederate monument erected in 1920 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, stands in Opelika, Alabama. An online petition was started in 2020 to have the monument removed, however the city stated it would be unable to do anything as the monument is privately owned.

While this was going on, I was commissioned by National Geographic to photograph memorials, monuments, and sites of the antebellum South. My friend Marshall Scheuttle and I drove approximately 4000 miles across eight southern states making photographs of every site we could find. Some have been removed, most remain in place.

Southern Horror #140

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