Antone Dolezal and Lara Shipley

The People of the Devil's Promenade

January 2 - March 5, 2015

Deep in the backwoods of the Ozark hills, locals both young and old still talk about the Spook Light. This mysterious light phenomenon appears on chance nights as a floating orb, seen on a remote country road in an area known as the Devil's Promenade. Many have tried and failed to discover its origins, including the United States Army Corp of Engineers in the 1950's. Because of its lack of explanation the Devil's Promenade has been a popular local destination for decades, with the tale of the Spook Light taking on the quality of myth within the local community.

Our collaborative project combines photographs of Ozark people and the land with more abstract and interpretive images based on oral accounts and mythology surrounding the light. Our aim is not to provide documentation, but to suggest a narrative that, in the spirit of the light, is part fixed in the unique region and part afloat in a mysterious, otherworldly realm.

Folkloric stories can shed symbolic light on very real issues in a community. In the Ozarks, many live in isolated poverty and drug addiction is high. This region is in the heart of the Bible Belt, and the struggle between heaven and hell factors into everyday conversation. We feel the frequent and mysterious appearance of the Spook Light has come to represent for the people we meet a desire for redemption and the fear of slipping into the darkness. It is a sublime experience whose defiance of explanation provides a reprieve from ordinary life.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: Antone Dolezal was raised on the eastern plains of Oklahoma and currently resides in Santa Fe, NM. His photographs explore the American social landscape and its relationship to history and folklore and are sometimes accompanied by vernacular imagery, found objects and fictional literature. https://www.antonedolezal.com/

Lara Shipley is from rural Missouri and currently lives in Kansas City, and teaches photography at the Kansas City Art Institute. She is an artist who primarily makes work about people and their relationships with the out-of-the-way places they call home. https://www.larashipley.com/

The Devil’s Promenade has been exhibited at photo-eye Bookstore + Project Space (Santa Fe,) H&R Block Artspace (Kansas City) and 555 Gallery (Boston), among other venues and is currently included in the Midwest Photographers Project at the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago.) The project has been featured on National Public Radio, The Oxford American’s Eyes on the South, Lenscratch, Feature Shoot, Fototazo and other online publications. Dolezal and Shipley have produced a three-volume set of books entitled Spook Light Chronicles that are available through https://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/