Eyes on the South

The Moviegoer

By  |  January 4, 2016
Untitled (Matinee screening of Casablanca, Prytania Theatre, Uptown, New Orleans) | All photographs by Jared Ragland Untitled (Matinee screening of Casablanca, Prytania Theatre, Uptown, New Orleans) | All photographs by Jared Ragland

Artist: Jared Ragland

Project: Everything is Going to Be All Right

Description: Everything is Going to Be All Right, by Jared Ragland, is a photographic meditation on Walker Percy’s classic novel of New Orleans, The Moviegoer. The series documents a distressed urban landscape and imagines an era of the city’s history when single-screen movie theaters dotted New Orleans. Combining traditionally made black-and-white photographs with appropriated imagery, Everything is Going to be All Right—which was originally featured in Eyes on the South in 2014—conveys the artist’s personal search for meaning amid feelings of loss, isolation, alienation, and malaise. Ragland is Binx Bolling with a camera. 

View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://main.oxfordamerican.org/item/741-the-moviegoer#sigProId2784a445d5
 

Eyes on the South is curated by Jeff Rich. The weekly series features selections of current work from Southern artists or artists whose photography concerns the South. To submit your work to the series, email Jeff at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Jared Ragland’s work is rooted in his lifelong exposure to the landscapes, people, aesthetics, and storytelling traditions of the American South. A former White House photo editor, Ragland currently teaches at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His upcoming monograph, Everything Is Going To Be All Right, will be published by Communicating Vessels this year. Ragland is a graduate of LaGrange College and holds an MFA from Tulane University. You can find more of his work at jaredragland.com. Follow him on social media at @jaredragland.

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