Southern Foodways Alliance Oral History Project

I’ve been making photographs as part of an oral history for the Southern Foodways Alliance for a while now and they’ve published them, so I’m excited to share some of that work here. The oral history is called Faith and Foodways in Alabama and it examines how people find fellowship in their faith communities and what role food plays in that community, and the interviews were conducted by Michelle Little. I shot the bulk of the stories digitally but I brought along my 8x10 to bring a different perspective and to encourage myself to engage some of the portraits a bit differently.

Father Paul Costopoulos of Holy Trinity + Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church here in Birmingham.

Fr. Paul has long been connected to the Greek food festival the church puts on here in Birmingham every year.

Rabbi Stephen Slater from Temple Beth-El here in Birmingham.

He’s got a fascinating story of how he came to rabbinical life by way of being raised in west Africa by Baptist missionary parents. Quite a road.

This is Lucy Heidorn whom I met at a Sacred Harp singing up at Old County Line Church in Corner, Ala. ⁣
Her family has been meeting at this place to host a Singing for a long time—in fact, Stephanie and I were there for the 100th anniversary of the gathering. ⁣

David Ivey not only has been attending singings since before he was one year old, he’s also the president of the Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association. He and his wife travel nearly every weekend to attend singings, including this one at Old County Line Church.

Lucy Heidorn stands with members of her immediate and extended family in front of Old County Line Church, where the family has been singing, annually, for 100 years. We made this photo to go into their archive of family photos which documents their family’s connection to this place and activity.

More from these oral histories to come, soon. To hear interview clips and read the full interviews, find the SFA page here.