Christy Bush, an Atlanta-born photographer, cut her teeth in Athens in the early days of the town’s rock scene’s explosion into international renown. Her three decades of intimate and distinctive portraiture evokes the American South in all its truth and complexity. Her works range from depicting the universally recognized — Bush’s community of artists and musicians — to the particular — portraits of the photographer’s family and environment. Regardless of the subject, her pictures evince an aesthetic entirely her own and timelessly encapsulate adolescence, tracing a through-line from her own rebellious and romantic youth in the punk clubs of the 80’s and 90’s to present-day teenagers’ experience of the same sun-drenched boredom and restless hope. Informed by her work with Richard Pandiscio and Todd Eberle at Interview in the 90’s, Bush’s works recall a time before the proliferation of images became a social currency, when capturing a moment and holding it close at hand was only for a few.
