The murder ballad has been kept alive both musically and literally in the American South, where it has been a part of the folk traditions since its origins in the British Isles. Its earliest versions were cautionary tales that warned young women about the dangers of unsanctioned sexuality. This fascination with violence against women has been celebrated and commodified in the Southern landscape and in popular music.
“Dark Waters,” a new monograph by Nashville-based photographer Kristine Potter, explores the legacy and ubiquity of human ferocity in southern landscapes, both historical and contemporary. Harold Schechter has called the murder ballad the oldest form of true-crime literature.
Potter’s work upends the tradition of murder ballads by considering the literal terrain in which they have traditionally taken place. Her photographs capture both the isolation and beauty of the rural South, highlighting the risk that entering such beautiful but unprotected spaces poses, especially for women. Sometimes, the images focus on the backdrops to violence, while at other times, they feature human portraits, some reminiscent of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The South’s most isolated places are often the most beautiful and the most blood-soaked, and women are not the only victims of this violent legacy. The Southern landscape has never been a safe place for a Black man alone or LGBTQ people of any race or gender. Potter’s photographs reveal the dangers that lurk in beautiful yet isolated places, warning us that to enter such places alone is to take a risk.
Popular music has recently offered songs that flip the murder-ballad tradition on its head, empowering women and promoting morality. But the threats to women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community continue to grow more pernicious. As Potter notes in her work, a through line of violent exhibitionism runs from the early murder ballads to contemporary cinema and television, suggesting that culturally, we still seem to require it.
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