The Culture Archivist : This Life, We Chose It

"This Life We Chose It" is a photo series created between 2015 and 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky, primarily in the working class neighborhoods targeted for gentrification of Butchertown, Germantown, and Old Louisville, in a desperate attempt to archive a community and way of life as it was being erased. Most of the photos were taken in diners and bars, most are still there with new names and new clientele.

The title comes from a comment a friend made outside of the Magnolia Bar in Louisville, which stuck out to me, as it hadn't occurred to me that some of us on the lower end of the economic scale saw this as a choice, and not something that was unescapable. Many of us were proud of where we came from, and our community, and heartbroken to see that world destroyed, but my understanding of my life was that it had been chosen for me.

Certainly the choice of association and to wear patches of affiliation, as well as a general demeanor of being fighters in a losing battle was a choice, and one he was proud of. And after that moment, one I was too.