There is a steady cadence to life in the Arkansas Ozarks. The seasons dictate changes in the everyday that become a source of comfort throughout each week and year. The winter winds bring in sudden flurries of snow as the fire inside warms the house and deer meat cooks on the stove. The first morel mushrooms surface in spring as the neighbor kids practice for the youth turkey hunt opening. Mud puddles swell with early summer rain as the meat chickens reach butchering weight and schools get close to letting out for summer.
Ozark Life weaves together the story of my family with the lives of people in our community. It examines our connection to this land and the roots we have embedded on it, which grow deeper with every generation. Rancher Will Norton can point to the earth under his feet and say his granddad’s dad farmed the same soil where he now raises his family and his cattle. My family is the first generation to live here, but it already feels as though the trees around our home know our children’s names.
This project has been a way for me to embrace the quiet beauty that I’ve always been drawn to—those small moments unfolding all around us on any given day. The ever-changing light, the fleeting scenes of adventure. I’ve come to understand the steady, underlying rhythm of life here as the heartbeat of the hills. It’s something a person who calls this place home comes to feel, and Ozark Life is my heart’s attempt at capturing that in photographs.
Artist Bios
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Terra Fondriest
Terra Fondriest is a documentary photographer (American, b.1983) living in the Ozarks of Arkansas with her husband, their two children, and a host of animals, bringing the unique storytelling perspective of someone raising a family in rural America. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in fish and wildlife conservation from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2004, she worked as a hotshot wildland firefighter for the US Forest Service all over the western portion of the country, a wrangler for an outfitter in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana, and, after finding an unmatched sense of peace in Arkansas, set down new roots to work as a geographic information system (GIS) mapper at the Buffalo National River for the Department of the Interior. Her journey into motherhood inspired her documentary practice. Her photographs of everyday life in the hills slowly evolved into her ongoing Ozark Life project. Her work has won several grants and awards and has been published and exhibited nationally and abroad. She is a member of Women Photograph and does editorial work for clients including The New York Times, Field and Stream, The New Yorker, and The Nature Conservancy.
Organizations
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Photoville
Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.
In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.
By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.
Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.
For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com
Ozark Life
Featuring: Terra Fondriest
Curated by: Bill Marr
Supported by:
Locations
View Location Details Download a detailed map of this location Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
This location is part of Brooklyn Bridge Park
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The views and opinions expressed in this exhibit are those of the exhibition artists and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Photoville or any other participants and partners of the Photoville Festival.
This project is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.
