The documentary series On Contentious Ground by Vann Powell shows visitors to American Civil War sites and landscapes. The series sheds light on the enduring polarisation of the Civil War in American history and memory. Powell's work captures visitors as they engage with the legacies of slavery and freedom. Through his portraits and landscapes, Powell aims to portray the persistent shadow the Civil War casts on the present.

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Published in issue #2 2024, Human Narratives

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On Contentious Ground is a documentary series of medium and large format photographs that focuses on visitors to American Civil War sites and landscapes. The American Civil War, a polarizing and formative event in American history and memory, still clearly marks a divisive fissure in America. Every year, millions of Americans visit the sites where thousands of Americans fell fighting to either uphold white supremacy or to break the chains and give birth to a new freedom, one more closely aligned with the universality proposed by the framers of the U.S. Constitution: where all men are created equally. By picturing visitors in these spaces and how they interact and reflect on the memories of slavery’s legacy and the cost of freedom for everyone in our nation, I aim to capture the reverberations of the Civil War rippling into our time, as if to picture the long shadow the Civil War has cast onto today.

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About

Vann Thomas Powell (MFA, Duke University) is a documentary artist working with still photography and moving images. His visual practice incorporates an array of photographic mediums in concert with historical and philosophical research to investigate how past, place, and memory construct American identities. He is increasingly interested in investigating subjects related to foundation narratives, myths, tall tales, folklore, and seldom-told histories. Vann's work has been exhibited across the United States. He is represented in collections including the Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscripts Library (Duke University) and the Museum of Fine Art Special Collections (Tufts University).

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www.vannthomaspowell.com