In the monograph ‘One Sun, One Shadow’, Shane Lavalette recalls his relationship with the American South and its musical heritage.

Shane Lavalette was commissioned by the High Museum in Atlanta to create a series of photographs for the exhibition Picturing the South which would become his monograph, One Sun, One Shadow. Rather than providing a visual documentary about musicians, the project moves through the “minor genres” —portraits, landscapes, agricultural scenes, still lives – to capture a lyric feeling that comes from music.

It was primarily through traditional music—the sounds of old time, blues, and gospel—that Lavalette had formed a relationship with the region. This history became a natural entry point to explore the connection between music and the landscape of the American South through images.