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

 

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