What does home mean, and how does the idea of home change over time? Mexico City-based photographer Keith Dannemiller explored these questions during a month-long residency at the Eyes on Main Street program based in Wilson, North Carolina.
Dannemiller photographed daily life in the small town and talked to many Mexican immigrants who live there. His interest lies in the tension between the longstanding myths about what home means in a small Southern town and the changing demographics of the South, which have created a more dynamic concept of home.
The photos he took during his residency comprised the project “Wilson,” were featured in Wilson until the end of July. The photos will be on display, along with the rest of the Eyes on Main Street residents’ photography, at the Pingyao International Photography Festival, September 19 to 25, in Pingyao, China.
Host Frank Stasio talks to Dannemiller about the project, his own personal connection to the South, and the stories he heard about what home means.
Interview Highlights
Dannemiller on the many different ideas of home in the Mexican diaspora in the United States:
This idea of asking a question about home, there's no simple answer. There's people that will say: I've become Americanized. This is where I want to be. This is where I want to live. This is my life. And there's the other end of the spectrum … I have a friend … [who is] a photographer in Minneapolis, and she said: I was born and raised in Mexico, but I've lived in the U.S. for the good part of my adult life. My life has become an interesting duality: two languages, two cultures, two homes, two lives. However, I'll always be Mexican first.
Dannemiller on his photograph, above, of a white boy participating in a Mexican birthday tradition:
When you go down to take the bite, someone gently pushes your head into the cake. And so the photograph is when he came back up with the front of his face covered with frosting from the cake .. It’s an extremely simple photograph … Graphically simple. But at the same time it embodies a lot of that cross-fertilization and that infusion, shall we say, of Mexican culture.
