The idea that the more particular the vision, the more universal its reach comes to mind when looking at Tamara Reynolds’ photographs. (James Joyce phrased it neatly: “In the particular is contained the universal.”) Reynolds’ portraits made in and around The Drake Motel, for example, are limited to a narrow geography and an even narrower set of circumstances, but the empathy she shares with her subjects turns them into familiar figures whom any viewer can identify with. Reynolds, who teaches photography at both Vanderbilt and Belmont universities, returns to this idea with her new series Melungeon, which captures life in the small town of Sneedville, Tenn. The exhibition, on view through June 26 at Begonia Labs, refers to Sneedville’s community of mixed-race people whose ancestry draws from African, Native American and European lineages. But the photographs here are far from exoticizing or othering in any way. Curator Grace Aneiza Ali explains this well in her exhibition statement: “Where we expect isolation, Reynolds’s images reveal relation. … At a moment when American identity fractures along imagined lines of purity, Melungeon reminds us that mixture — mélange — has long been our nation’s story.” The gallery is open Thursdays and Fridays from 4 to 7 p.m., on Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m., or by appointment.
Through June 26 at Begonia Labs
2805 West End Ave.
