Derrick Woods-Morrow
I am interested in the tension between visibility and concealment—what it means to make a body visible without necessarily making it available. One figure withholds their face while the other emerges through light and shadow, never fully resolved. Their gestures move between performance and desire, while a braid extending between them makes their connection material. The solidity of bodies and rocks contrasts with the instability of water, sunlight, glare, hair, and horizon. These shifting elements make looking itself a more difficult act. For me, that withholding matters. The photograph proposes intimacy without assuming that intimacy must produce legibility, disclosure, or possession.
Thoughts on the lab
Latitude came to me at a time when I needed community—and, honestly, a place to print after grad school. I was incessant about the color, value, and density of my photographs. I’m sure I drove Simon, Jess, Alex, and Xander insane, but for the most part, they supported my incessantness. I learned so much there. I’d leave drenched in sweat, mostly because I was always trying to print until the very last minute. I wanted my images to do so much, and Latitude gave me the space, patience, and knowledge to keep pushing them. Latitude worked with me for years, and ultimately Xander, after moving on, became the printer responsible for much of my work over the last decade. So much of how I understand the photographic image—and what I expect from a print—was shaped in that space and through those relationships. I remain forever grateful.