I interpreted the collection as more of a narrative. As if they were taken from a slave’s point of view, escaping the plantation area, through the woods with nothing more than a flashlight, waiting for someone or something, scared to be caught, and then they finally get to an open area far enough from their imprisonment where they can appreciate the moon and the sky finally free. However, these free slaves were very few. Most of them were caught, tortured, or killed.
The collection by Jeanine has multiple images mostly shot at night, and in the majority of them there is a sense of a flashlight or some sort of light illuminating the darkness. They are all taken from the outside in the middle of the woods or outside of old looking homes. There are two main focal points in the images for me. First one, when the photo has a building in it, it usually is the focal point of the image, it’s center and ominous, intimidating and eerie. And the second one is either the moon or the night sky with the stars shining, a sense of guidance and hope. The collection of images represents different buildings where slaves once worked and were kept, and its surrounding areas in the plantation such as a cemetery and woods.
