SOUTHERLY GOLD

2010-2020

Formed in 2011, Southerly Gold was an ensemble of three working female photographers living and working in the city of New Orleans. The collective consisted of Aubrey Edwards, Ariya Martin and Elena Ricci.

From 2012 through 2016, Southerly Gold traveled to the parishes that occupy the delineated corners of the state following the trails of desire for Southern Utopia. These photographs are an exploration of the promises and resources that the farthest reaches of Louisiana have held for humankind. From agriculture to oil, from land to sea, our images of the contemporary landscape—captured along routes of the past—bear witness to the residue of these promises.

Southerly Gold was included in the Louisiana Contemporary exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and they have shown work at The Grand Maltese Gallery, New Orleans Public Library, UNO gallery St. Claude and in conjunction with PhotoNOLA. They were recipients of the 2016 Platforms Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation to publish a limited first edition of the six book set God’s Country in 2018. They created the commissioned multimedia installation Land of Evangeline: Reconstructed for the New Orleans Museum of art in 2019 with accompanying programming. They were members of Good Children Gallery from 2019-2021. Visit the collective online at southerly-gold.com