Unless you are five years old, which means you likely aren’t reading this, you have lived, watched and given some consideration to your experiences in life, the fun times and the other stuff, too. Any time you say, “remember when…” or “back then, I…” you are recollecting the past and its impact on you. History, including our own, is all around us, in the things we keep, the memories we have, the habits that define our lives. You might call it, inescapable.
There is a new book out that is about as close to home as history can get. It’s called ‘Round Here: Images From and Near Catawba County. Poet Scott Owens and photographer Clayton Joe Young combine their talents to explore the feelings of memory found in landscapes that we may take for granted.
For example, the opening section, titled “Used To,” offers a dual meaning. First, as a nod to what once was, it also references things with which we become familiar. Have you ever asked for directions and someone referenced a location that is no longer there? They believe that you have been ‘round here long enough to remember the days when whatever ain’t there anymore, was. It becomes like a club of shared memory. There are plenty of those moments in this book.
The two have worked together before with the images of Joe’s camera guiding the pen of Scott’s poems. This time, for the most part, that process has been reversed with Scott writing and Joe then capturing images that fit the gist of the memory. The collaboration is an interesting one that demonstrates the many ways in which we look back at days and places now gone.
In writing poems about local landmarks, Scott Owens observed that compared to other municipalities, “Hickory and Catawba County, in a larger sense, has retained history.” He added, “we transform old into something new while retaining some character from the old as well.” You see that in Joe’s photographs. Some of the images are instantly recognizable. You might see them everyday in your travels. Others are hidden, brought out only by the eye of an award winning photographer and which are paired with the words of an extraordinary poet.
Copies of ‘Round Here are available at Taste Full Beans in downtown Hickory. On Tuesday, December 12th starting at 6:15pm, the duo will be talking about the collaboration at the next Poetry Hickory event. They will discuss the work, read from it and will autograph copies. In addition, Joe and Scott talk more about their collaboration on RedPubPod, found wherever you get your podcasts. Both were also interviewed by Arianna Mack (11/24 Community Focus) on the WHKY Youtube channel.
History comes to us in a variety of ways, not just through some dried tome of dates and dead people. Joe and Scott have captured a unique essence of the past, the particulars of which are found only here, but the spirit of consideration hangs on in every place, informing not only our present, but the future too. See what I mean about inescapable? Very nice to see two talented artists bring it to light in a special way.
Photo: If you don’t want to argue politics at the Christmas family gathering, give this book as a present and talk about what you remember.
