Shannon Davis

"Surrounded" Southern, ants, staged photography, feet, figurative black & white

2023

With decades of design and motion-directing experience, Shannon Davis chose photography as her medium for making art. Her conceptual projects feature a deep awareness of balancing form and content, exploring mood within a single frame. She shares her creative passions as a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her project “I Got Somethin’ To Show You” was a Lens Culture Exposure Award Finalist, Ain’t Bad Magazine Top 100 Photography Series, and top ten finalists in the Duke University Lange/Taylor Prize. Her artist book “Controlled Burn” was acquired by the University of Georgia Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Bainbridge Island Art Museum in WA. Like many in the US, Shannon is a transplant and has lived in the South longer than anywhere else. She often asks locals, “how long do I need to live in the South till I’ll be considered a southerner?” Their answer is always the same, “NEVER.” “Controlled Burn” is a conceptual photography series that explores the smoldering act of assimilation and the pursuit of home. To illustrate narrative experiences she combines familiar objects into uncommon assemblages. The wit and juxtaposition of the art-directed still life’s convey mysterious observations while navigating a new place. The combinations become a metaphor for feeling out of place while offering a reframing of regional stereotypes, inviting the viewer to question what is being represented and how it resonates with their own idea of the South.