Seeing Red: A Digital Photo Essay

Mississippi is considered a red state.

When we utter this statement, most people will think of the associations of the color red with this political distinction.

However, the color red also heavily populates day to day life in the state.

I have spent a vast amount of time across this semester travelling to nearby towns in North Mississippi. It seems that everywhere I go; the color red populates the landscape, the natural, as well as the social.

Red is a dominant color in the study of color psychology. Color psychology explores the varying responses individuals have to the color red, as well as the differing meanings associated with the color in various cultures.

When we think of red we think of anger, frustration, and power. But we also think of love, warmth, and strength.

In Chinese culture, red is often used to signal good luck. In Indian culture, red is used to signal purity and is often used in wedding gowns. When we think of red in Western culture, we tend to think of its association to the stop sign and its power to halt. Yet, we also think of love and passion.

This digital essay explores the ways in which the color red populates the landscape of North Mississippi, in the flowers that bloom at the start of spring, to the rust beginning to form on an old truck left beside the road.

The color red is more than just a political distinction in the state.

This is seeing red. 

Red in the social landscape

In the first blooms of the spring on the University of Mississippi campus

To the spicy crawfish at the start of the season at the Crawdad Hole in Watervalley

To the new tractor on Lauren Farms near Leland

To the truck selling firewood, parked on the Square in Holly Springs 





And to the old truck, left to rust by the side of the road near Tupelo

To the flags flying in the breeze on a town Square 

To the fresh produce at Beaverdam Farms near Indianola

To the mysterious red door in Tupelo

And the old Coca-Cola mural on the wall

To the signs that populate Main Street in Como






To the shopping carts at Big Star on University Avenue

To the steps leading up to a house in Greenwood

And the red house behind the trees near Abbeville

To the taxidermy in Red Rooster in Pontotoc

To the rusting sign on Highway 7



To the bright lights of one of the last juke joints in Clarksdale

And to the fading night in downtown Como



People and the Color Red

To the lady drying off on a damp afternoon inside the BTC grocery store, with a bowl of soup and a book in a red booth



And the little girl playing in the red door playhouse while her mother buys groceries



To the apron a store assistant wears while serving at the BTC



And the clothes two gentlemen wear while having a cup of coffee



To smart red suit worn by one of the the Como Mamas on stage



This is how the color red populates North Mississippi. 

All photographs were made between February and May 2013.