Ain’t No Rest for the Worker: Life and Labor in Rural North Carolina

I was inspired to do this project by the title of the class “Small Towns USA.” It reminded me of where my roots are, and that the people who live and work in my childhood home are invisible to the outside world due to the fact that the location is so secluded from the rest of the world.

Over the past 3 months, I have worked very hard to try and make a photo collection and presentation that accurately depicts the beauty of rural North Carolina and the people who live there. About every two weeks, I drove three hours there, took pictures, and then drove back. In my time there I learned a lot about people who were only acquaintances to begin with.

The people in Hyde County are hard-working people, but this doesn’t stop them from having fun and being incredibly hospitable. All of the people whose photos I took sacrificed time out of their days so that I could document what they were doing. They all were happy to help and shared a lot of personal memories with me so that I could tell a story about who they are and how they live. Thank you so much to all of you who have seen this project as well as to the people who participated in it.