Artist: Alex Christopher Williams

Project: Summer Time Boys

Description: Prompted by his mixed race childhood, as well as a more recent rumination on the differences between his experience of race and his father’s, Alex Christopher Williams sought to portray contemporary scenes of black childhood and masculinity around his home in Atlanta, and elsewhere, from Detroit to Pittsburgh to Huntington, Ohio. As a result, the frames in Summer Time Boys span a wide range of action and stillness: Two boys anticipate a basketball’s descent on a court in Douglasville, Georgia. A man bends toward a water fountain in an Atlanta park. A shirtless boy, barely visible above a fence, pushes a mower through a sun-drenched backyard. 

The images, sparsely populated and rich with growth—both wild and domestic—capture moments of tenderness and vulnerability amidst urban and suburban landscapes.  Presented collectively, they tell a story of manhood, boyhood, and Williams’s attempts to reconcile the two.

Eyes on the South&\#xA0;is curated by&\#xA0;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, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..