Castell Photography

From the Artist: Todd Cook

Todd Cook is 1 of 4 artists currently exhibiting at Castell Photography as a part of our invitational group exhibition, Lens on the Land: A Collection of North Carolinian Landscapes. Todd is the second of 4 Lens on the Land artists that we will be featuring, keep checking back for the remaining 2!

“I’ve given this land back to god,
Though it was never really mine.
I’ll pay the taxes and be its steward,
While I’m alive and feeling fine.
I hope the next taxpayer will be its steward,
And let God keep his land when I’m dead.
So come sit and see God in all his glory,
And reflect on what I’ve said.”

–Just another Steward…
In the year of our Lord 2004, June.

From the artist:

Growing up, my mother used to tell my brother and I of the long car trips from Greensboro to Stumpy Point in the 60s and 70s that her and my Pawpaw would make to visit his mother. She spoke of the remoteness of the small sleepy town hugging a bay a stones throw from the Outer Banks where Papaw spent his youth, and recalled stories of colorful relatives whom Id never had the pleasure of meeting. 

Pawpaw was always a sincere and humble man. He never wasted anything. He called my brother Justin Just-tiny and would draw us silly pictures of birds pooping on the heads of farmers. He was a devout Christian who never missed a Sunday service, and believed in integrity. To my brother and I, he represented something greater than this world could offer. He kept a garden in his backyard in Greensboro, and when my brother and I would visit when we were little, wed go with him and pick corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, squash, and blackberries. You name it; he probably grew it at one time or another. Around suppertime, you were guaranteed that some of those very veggies we had picked earlier would end up in some lovely concoction he would cook up for us. Are you still hungry? Would you like anything else? he would inquire with the slight tint of a strange accent in his voice I could never place, until now. A High-tider accent, my family would call it. In the spirit of giving and never taking that he embodied, he always made sure we were full.

In the spring of 2005, I began my first semester of college at East Carolina University, the very same college Pawpaw attended, though it was still called East Carolina Teachers College (ECTC) when he was there on the G.I. Bill. As a photography major, I quickly fell in love with the region probably the first time I drove down highway 264 East. You pass a car on a country road, and the driver waves, regardless if they know you or not. The rejuvenating and virile nature of landscape during the spring, the hot and humid summer days, backed with the soundtrack of droning crescendos created by cicadas and the ambient glow of lights radiating from small towns off in the distance at night, abandoned homesteads dotting the countryside, the melancholy nature of the landscape during the fall and winter, and the overall peaceful expansiveness of the region puts me at ease. 

In the process of documenting this area, I discovered a region where time stood still; it invoked the memories of my mothers trips to the coast some 40 years ago. I discovered a region rich in history, heritage, sincerity, and integrity that I felt long disjointed from. I met some of the relatives my mom mentioned to me in my youth, and mended broken family bonds in the process. I met people who I couldnt fathom not ever knowing.  In short, I discovered my home.
    
Eastern North Carolina is home to a wide array of people who shape the very landscape they live in, in both the physical and non-physical sense. From farmers to fishermen, my grandfather was one of these people. I hope you feel at home when viewing these images, and I hope these images help portray the passing of time and the expansiveness of the area, and how its fellow stewards shape it.

Work from Lens of the Land will be hanging through the end of June, and can also been see on our web site. Stay tuned for features on the remaining 2 artists….

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