These pictures are not an effort to document, in any real sense, Grapevine Hollow,
West Virginia, but rather the collision of my experiences, the tangible world and
the nature of photography.

I first photographed Grapevine, West Virginia in 1988. It is such a small town that
a resident once said that if you didn’t know it was a hollow you would think it was
someone’s driveway. It was never my intention to stay for a long time in any one
place, the general nature of most photographic road trips, yet repeated visits of
varying lengths up to several months continued for over five years.

I found myself driven by a desire for repeated interaction with the community and
to specific places and events in Grapevine. And also perhaps to an intimacy never
before imagined. After all it was a chance set of circumstances which brought me
to Grapevine in the first place.

This series of photographs is my journal.

SL

New York City, 1993