American photographer Rahim Fortune has collaborated once again with publishers Loose Joints, this time on a new monograph titled Hardtack. His previous work with them – 2021 photo book I can’t stand to see you cry – presented an intimate portrait of the American South and its people, and this latest release returns to the same landscape, looking deeper into its past and present.

His take on the subject is neatly encapsulated in the book’s title, which refers to a dense biscuit made from flour, water and salt that was commonly given to soldiers during the American Civil War. For Fortune, the long shelf life of this food, and its connotations with survivalism, fittingly reflect the hardiness of Black culture.

In Hardtack, Fortune asserts that the tumultuous history of this region can still be seen in the people who live there. Key to this series of images are the photographs of coming-of-age traditions within southern Black communities, including bull-riding, praise dancing and beauty pageants. Fortune presents these pastimes as both formative community rituals, as well as bastions of Black culture, speaking to a long history of resilience and creativity.

Faith is a core concept within the work, not only in one’s self and one another, but in God. Quiet photographs of the church – a space for rest, connection and reflection – hint at its central role in the Black communities that Fortune spent time with, binding them together in times of hardship and joy.

“Working on Hardtack, I became fascinated with how spirituality has played a vital role in Black American politics and social activism,” Fortune said in a recent interview. “This concept is that the work done inside of the church ultimately benefits the people on the outside.”

Other aspects of the southern landscape also feature prominently in the series, and Fortune leans on the language of vernacular and archival photography to document these spaces. Demolished schools, boarded-up hardware stores and the barren expanses of land beneath highway overpasses nod to an evolving history of hardship. These images also serve to further highlight the resilience of the people that call these areas home and who, in Fortune’s portraits, appear pensive yet proud.

As with Fortune’s previous photo book, Hardtack is shot exclusively in black and white, and while this means the rich colour palette of the region eludes the audience, it brings the people and places into sharper focus. Writing in the book’s accompanying essay, author and columnist Imani Perry says: “In person, there is so much green and blue, gold and brown – the colours of plants, water, and people. Yet shot in black and white, much of what it means to be human is made crystal clear.”

“His eye and trained lens see not merely what was done to the people and by the people, but how their descendants remain beautiful in the place where it happened, for the people,” Perry continues. “Here, good fortune is not found in wealth, but in record and remembrance.”

Hardtack by Rahim Fortune is published by Loose Joints; loosejoints.biz