Tough Cuts, Long Stewed

› SOFIA, BULGARIA, 2012.......................................

In 1975, some of my photos were chosen to be included in a University of New Mexico exhibition entitled “December 5, 1974.” All of the photos in the show were taken in the United States on that date. I was working on my master’s in film at the time at the University of Georgia, but I had found my true love to be still photography, which I taught as a graduate assistant. Of my photos chosen, this one was taken on a typical cool winter’s day in north Georgia. As I drove through the foothills north of Athens, there was the pervasive, beguiling smell of wood fires throughout the rolling landscape, Georgia red clay peeking through the fields of harvested corn and cotton. I knew that it was the traditional hog killin’ weekend, and I hoped that I would find some roadside butchering going on. I scored not far from home.