Edwin Averette III: The American Family Cemetery

Edwin Averette III: The American Family Cemetery – LENSCRATCH

This week, we will be exploring projects inspired by place. Today, we’ll be looking at Edwin Averette III’s series The American Family Cemetery. Edwin Averette III was an undergraduate photography student while I was at East Carolina University. He was one of the most hardworking and dedicated students. I heard a story where, during a hurricane,

via LENSCRATCH: http://lenscratch.com/2023/10/edwin-averette-iii-the-american-family-cemetery/

For years I met with individuals that were generations older than myself. They showed me their family photo albums. Within those albums were family portraits of every generation of the family. This body of work highlights the American Family Cemetery as the surviving entity of the generations before us in this Eastern North Carolina landscape. They are constructed environments in everchanging context through interactions during and after the remaining persons were reposed. These burial grounds are essentially their own family portrait, not of just one generation, but all of them.