On the dangers that lurk in the rural South

Margaret Renkl writes in her most recent column in the New York Times of a new monograph, Dark Waters (Aperture 2023), by photographer Kristine Potter.  Here are some excerpts from Renkl's column, which strike me as echoing the themes of my 2013 book chapter, "The Rural Lawscape:  Space Tames Law Tames Space," in which I hypothesize the relative absence of law in rural spaces, which are more challenging and costly to police--and to keep people safe--because of the nature rural spatiality.  I also wrote about that book chapter here in relation to a McClatchy Press series about the practical realities of rural law enforcement in California.  

Here are some salient excerpts from Renkl's essay on Potter's book: 

The landscapes in these photographs are not so much threatening as bereft of protection. Entering such beautiful spaces is always a risk for a woman alone — not because of anything inherently dangerous about a mist-drenched stream or a bamboo-clotted riverbank or even a rocky waterfall, but because bucolic settings aren’t always as empty as they seem. And nobody would hear you scream if danger has followed you into the woods — or if danger is already there, just waiting for you to arrive.

* * * 

In the South, our most isolated places are at once the most beautiful and the most blood-soaked, and Ms. Potter understands that women are in no way the sole victims of this violent legacy. In one photo, an older white man teaches a young Black man how to tie on a fishing hook. The younger man’s position — kneeling, head bowed, eyes cast downward, arms raised, wrists together — suggests both resignation and supplication. He could be learning to tie a hook on a fishing line. He could as easily be crouching to avoid blows. He could as easily be presenting his wrists for handcuffs.

Our deep woods are lovely, our still waters restful, but the Southern landscape has never been a safe place for a woman alone. It has never been a safe place for a Black man alone. It has never been a safe place for L.G.B.T.Q. people of any race or gender. To enter an isolated place alone has always been to take a risk, and we have known that all our lives.