We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Casey Joiner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Casey below.

Alright, Casey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I’ve been making a personal body of work for the past 3 years called “Surrounded By Natural Causes”. It started a few years into my Dad being sick with cancer, and has been my navigation of grief, memory, and identity. He passed away in March of 2023, and I continue to make this work in the aftermath, It’s been an important way for me to sort through the non-linear complications of loss and how disorienting it can be.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a photographer in New Orleans, LA. My practice is loosely rooted in the documentary tradition, beholden to the actuality of my immediate surroundings. my approach to image selection is intended to be non-hierarchical, employing the fundamental grammar of light, shadow, color to produce evocative images, rather than relying on strongly narrative content to tell my stories. For me, the productive capacity of the photographic medium lies in its accessibility and availability to a wide array of interpretations. my pictures have formalist conviction, democratic vernacular and a magical realist attitude.
My work registers many of the complications of life in New Orleans; a place world-renowned for hospitality and ravaged by tourism, steeped in cultural mythologies and woefully under-resourced, surrounded by natural beauty, and in grave ecological danger. My practice is informed by my affection for places full of peculiar nonsense and deep struggle, slow things, long standing traditions, and growing up in the Deep South. Matter-of-fact in their sentimentality and beholden only to the actual, my pictures speak in the abstract of memory, identity, celebration and perpetual care.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding thing about being a photographer for me, other than finding a way to reconcile what is inside of me with what is outside, is making something that other people viscerally respond or connect to.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I think the goal for a lot of people working in any creative field is to be able to make a living doing what we love to do. For me, I’ve always had at least two other jobs. I hope to be photographing full time in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: @ce_joiner

Image Credits

all images credited to Casey Joiner