My America - Rashod Taylor Photography

My America is a meditation on history and its undeniable grip on the present. As a Black man with deep family ties to military service, my great-uncle Lecky Taylor served in WWII, alongside many of my cousins in future generations. I often ask, what is patriotism? How does one fight for a country that denies them dignity? This tension runs through my work, exposing the ways racism, inequality, and injustice are not relics of the past but forces still shaping Black life today.

Using the wet plate collodion process, I create tintypes ranging from 8x10 to 20x24 inches, each plate a singular, unrepeatable object. The most recent large-scale works magnify every detail within the frame, demanding deeper engagement. The landscapes of Ossabaw Island and the Whitney Plantation hold the weight of history. I walked these lands knowing my ancestors suffered there. I sat inside the Whitney Plantation jail, where enslaved people were once confined, I felt the crushing reality that captivity and control have simply taken on new forms such as mass incarceration, redlining and economic disparity.

The past is not behind us; it is woven into the fabric of America. My America is both a reckoning and a resistance, a call to see this history not as something distant, but as something alive, shaping the world we navigate today.

* The wet plate collodion process was first introduced in the 1850’s. It’s a process that requires tin, glass, or photographic medium to be coated, sensitized, exposed and developed within about fifteen minutes. If working in the field, it requires a portable darkroom for development. Though the overall experience can be delicate and cumbersome, it renders each platea one-of-a-kind art piece.