Photo © Amanda Driggers
Photojournalism - NOMINEE: Amanda Driggers
Belongs To
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'Belongs To' is a visual representation of lost and found memories. As a child, I spent my summer vacations between Lufkin and Spring, Texas where my moms side of the family live. In the summer of 2013, after years away, I attended a family reunion in Texas that brought the summers of my past to light. As I grew older and family members dies and moved, I began to feel an absence of self. Only upon returning, surrounded by these familiarities did I begin to remember that I belong to something greater. These places, these people, are a part of who I am. The photographs that I have taken over the past four years focus primarily on the people who have influenced the premise of this project. In moving forward, I seek to return to the locations that bred my most fond memories.
My grandmother, Walter Fay Price (Mima), was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at a very early age and died only a short time after. At the time of her diagnosis I was a pre-teen, the age of self absorption and a time where I was simply "too busy to care". My Mima was by far the most solid figure in my life - there at every turn - and my partner in crime. The first half of every summer vacation was spent on her farm in Lufkin, Texas, a small, hot, and uncharacteristically charming town in east Texas. I woke up every morning to the smell of coffee and cigarettes, usually around 5:30 AM, before the air got too thick and the bugs too many. We may work on an old Coca-Cola puzzle or fry up some eggs with cheese toast before heading out to pick okra and check the possum traps - or - if it was a special morning we might go get McDonalads breakfast. The afternoons were mostly for staving off the heat, with my favorite memories being when she would let me take the riding lawn mower out around the yard or sneak me in to the La Quinta Inn pool. There was something so playful, so thrilling about this place that wasn't my own, with my Mima who was mine. Texas was a feeling.
Much like the loss of her memory, I let go of mine. Losing her, meant losing that place and until I go back - those memories to me are still lost.
About author:
Amanda Lindsay Driggers is born, raised, and permanently based in the south. After spending most of her years renouncing all things digital, she finally took the plunge and made a website in 2015. To her, film is a living, breathing thing with a mind of its own and although the "final product" is very important, its the moments spent taking the photograph that matter most. Amanda graduated with a BFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2012 and has spent the following years trying to make enough money to keep film in her camera.
My grandmother, Walter Fay Price (Mima), was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at a very early age and died only a short time after. At the time of her diagnosis I was a pre-teen, the age of self absorption and a time where I was simply "too busy to care". My Mima was by far the most solid figure in my life - there at every turn - and my partner in crime. The first half of every summer vacation was spent on her farm in Lufkin, Texas, a small, hot, and uncharacteristically charming town in east Texas. I woke up every morning to the smell of coffee and cigarettes, usually around 5:30 AM, before the air got too thick and the bugs too many. We may work on an old Coca-Cola puzzle or fry up some eggs with cheese toast before heading out to pick okra and check the possum traps - or - if it was a special morning we might go get McDonalads breakfast. The afternoons were mostly for staving off the heat, with my favorite memories being when she would let me take the riding lawn mower out around the yard or sneak me in to the La Quinta Inn pool. There was something so playful, so thrilling about this place that wasn't my own, with my Mima who was mine. Texas was a feeling.
Much like the loss of her memory, I let go of mine. Losing her, meant losing that place and until I go back - those memories to me are still lost.
About author:
Amanda Lindsay Driggers is born, raised, and permanently based in the south. After spending most of her years renouncing all things digital, she finally took the plunge and made a website in 2015. To her, film is a living, breathing thing with a mind of its own and although the "final product" is very important, its the moments spent taking the photograph that matter most. Amanda graduated with a BFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2012 and has spent the following years trying to make enough money to keep film in her camera.