Rylan Steele is a photographer and professor based in Columbus, Georgia. The body of work on view in The Middle Way came to fruition after the Columbus State University associate professor of photography reread the Pulitzer Award-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). The Southern Gothic novel, which spawned an Oscar-winning movie, explores race, gender, and class while also telling the story of childhood and the pivotal parts of growing up.
This led Steele to his project of photographing his son, Owen, over the past nine years. Steele makes it known that he and his son are collaborators in this body of work, with the documentation of The Middle Way series constructed from conversations they’ve had. Most recently, Owen shared with his father that he feels the title The Middle Way speaks to the way he chooses to go about life—taking the middle path.
Each image offers a glimpse into Owen’s boyhood, what his room looked like, who his friends were, what his responsibilities were, and what or who he was learning from. For Steele, through the perspective of fatherhood, rereading To Kill a Mockingbird made him question who his son would become in his adult life. These images documenting his evolution from child to teen to young adult almost act as a recounting, something that can be revisited and remembered.
Steele is one of two artists who were selected for solo exhibitions in the AMA’s second annual juried open call for artists.
