Chris Offutt is a self-taught photographer living in rural Mississippi. He’s been using the camera obsessively and relentlessly for more than 35 years. In 2020, he began scanning thousands of negatives and organizing digital files. This led to starting an Instagram account, which was the first time he showed his photographs to anyone. He is a professor of English at the University of Mississippi and the author of seven books. He wrote screenplays for True Blood, Weeds, and Treme.
The Often Overlooked
My work focuses on the intersection of the built and natural environment in rural and small-town America. The subject matter is not a priority. I’m interested in performing aesthetic experiments with color, line, and shape. The world is beautiful but too often we overlook that beauty due to familiarity and proximity. My photographic practice is based on intuition, seeking what is easy to ignore or take for granted–relationships of shape and negative space in structures that are all around us. My hope is that a viewer will see the world in a different way, filled with accidental beauty.
To view more of Chris’s work please visit their website.