A local photographer living in Mebane, Chris Sims, recently participated in a unique collection of photographs titled Southbound: Photographs of and About the New South. 

The photography has been on display at the Halsey Institute in Charleston, South Carolina since October, and will continue to be on display until early March. The display will come to N.C. State and Duke Universities next year. 

Sims was born in Michigan and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He has an undergraduate degree in history from Duke University, a master’s degree in visual communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a M.F.A. in studio art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He worked as a photo archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and currently is the Undergraduate Education Director at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. At Duke he also teaches in the Duke-in-Berlin summer program and in the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts graduate program.

Sims made his way to Mebane approximately twenty years ago for a meeting with another photographer, and fell in love with the charm of this small community. He is honored to be a part of this special photography project.