Into the Heartland: Mississippi Delta with Aline Smithson and Lisa McCord (Travel Workshop)

About

Led by Aline Smithson and coordinated by Mississippi-born and raised photographer Lisa McCord, Into the Heartland offers a week-long immersive opportunity to connect with landscapes and communities in the Deep South, going outside major cities.

The series offers on-site encounters across the country, capturing of rural landscapes, small-town life, and places that might get excluded from the national limelight. These hands-on workshops will challenge your creativity, deepen your technical skills, and give you a fresh perspective on the American landscape, all while fostering meaningful connections with fellow photographers and local communities. Step away from the crowds and discover the stories waiting to be told across the country.

Into the Heartland takes participants on a captivating journey through the Mississippi Delta, a region steeped in history, culture, raw beauty, and painful histories. The workshop begins in Memphis, where you’ll immerse yourself in the stories of Graceland, the National Civil Rights Museum, and the Lorraine Motel, photographing iconic sites that have shaped American cultural memory.

From there, the group ventures into the heart of Arkansas and Mississippi, capturing the soul of small southern towns. In Arkansas, we’ll spend time in Wilson, Osceola and Blytheville, exploring the daily rhythms of rural life. Oxford, Mississippi, offers an intimate portrait of a literary and sports town, where a visit to William Faulkner’s Rowan Oak will deepen your connection to the region’s complicated legacy and dark past. Throughout the journey, Aline’s expert guidance and Lisa’s local insight will help you frame both the grand and the subtle narratives of the Mississippi Delta.

ABOUT ALINE SMITHSON (Lead instructor)

Aline Smithson is a visual artist, educator, and editor based in Los Angeles, California. Best known for her conceptual portraiture and a practice that uses humor and pathos to explore the performative potential of photography. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, her work is influenced by the elevated unreal. She received a BA in art from the University of California at Santa Barbara and was accepted into the College of Creative Studies, studying under artists such as William Wegman, Allen Ruppersburg, and Charles Garabian. After a decade-long career as a New York Fashion Editor, Aline returned to Los Angeles and to her own artistic practice.

She has exhibited widely including over 40 solo shows at institutions such as the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the San Jose Art Museum, the Shanghai, Lishui, and Pingyqo Festivals in China, The Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco, the Center of Fine Art Photography in Colorado, the Tagomago Gallery in Barcelona and Paris, and the Verve Gallery in Santa Fe. In addition, her work is held in a number of public collections and her photographs have been featured in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, PDN, and Communication Arts, among others.

Aline’s Instructor Profile Page

ABOUT LISA MCCORD (Mississippi Liaison)

Lisa McCord is a fine art and documentary photographer from the Arkansas Delta, who lives and works in Los Angeles and Arkansas. Focusing on her experiences on her family’s cotton farm, her creative practice explores concepts of storytelling, memory, and the passage of time.

McCord received her BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and earned an MFA from California Institute of the Arts. She also attended New York University, Le Contrejour, Paris, and The Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY. She taught photography at Pepperdine University.

She has exhibited her work in galleries and museums, including Annenberg Space for Photography, Building Bridges Art Exchange, Bruce Lurie Gallery, and Leica Gallery LA. McCord’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Fabrik Projects, Gallery 825, Leica Gallery, Memphis Cotton Museum and Slow Exposures. Internationally, she has exhibited at the Museum of Nature of Cantabria in Spain, MIA Photo Fair in Milan, and Alta Vista in Paris. McCord’s work is in the permanent collections of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

Her first monograph, Rotan Switch, was published in 2024, by Kehrer Verlag. Book signings include Coston Arts Center, in Osceola, Arkansas, and Photo London.

Her work has been featured in numerous publications including AAP Magazine, Arkansas Democratic Gazette, Black & White Photography (UK edition), Float Magazine, and The Guardian. She was a Critical Mass Top 200 Finalist in 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2024.

Details

WORKSHOP DATES

• Tuesday, October 6th – Arrivals in Memphis. Welcome and group dinner.
• Wednesday, October 7th – Workshop, dinner.
• Thursday, October 8th – Workshop, dinner.
• Friday, October 9th – Workshop, dinner.
• Saturday, October 10th – Workshop, dinner.
• Sunday, October 11th – Workshop, dinner.
• Monday, October 12th – Departures from Memphis.

TUITION AND DEPOSIT

Tuition: $4,895 for Members, $4,995 for Non-Members; $500 deposit. The balance is due three months prior to the start date. LACP will contact you to arrange the balance payment.

PAYMENT AND REFUND POLICY

A $500 deposit is required to reserve space in the workshop. The balance is due three months prior to the start date. Refund requests arriving three months or greater before the start date will result in 50% loss of deposit. Refund requests arriving one month to three months prior to the start date will result in 50% loss of the workshop fee. No refunds will be provided for requests arriving less than one month prior to the start date. All refund requests must be submitted in writing via email to info@lacphoto.org.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN TUITION

• Expert-led instruction and fixer throughout the workshop
• Guided, on-location photo shoots across the Mississippi Delta
• All dinners
• All transportation except transport from Memphis airport to destination hotel on Tuesday, October 7th
• Two LACP team members
• Water and snacks

WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED IN TUITION

• Travel to and from Memphis airport
• Hotel accommodations (billed later to all participants by booked by LACP)
• All breakfasts and lunches
• All entrance fees for museums, attractions & events, galleries, etc.

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

Limited to 8 participants

SKILL LEVEL AND WHAT TO BRING

All students are expected to have an understanding of how their camera works. Participants will be expected to bring a DSLR or Mirrorless Camera + SD cards, a laptop loaded with Adobe Lightroom CC and Adobe Photoshop CC.  A tripod is optional.

Participants should be in good physical condition and able to comfortably walk multiple miles a day.

Students will receive a welcome letter from Aline Smithson and Lisa McCord about two months prior to the travel experience. The letter will provide further details and instruction.

HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS

All hotel accommodations will be an additional expense for the participants. LACP will invoice each participant separately with these chargers well before the start date. However, please note that LACP will book all accommodations. The workshop will start with a two-night hotel stay in Memphis, a three-night hotel stay in Arkansas (in or around Wilson), and a two-night hotel stay in Oxford, Mississippi.

SCHEDULE (subject to change)

Day 1: Tuesday, October 6th, 6 pm – 9 pm – Arrivals in Memphis. Welcome and dinner. 

Arrive in Memphis for a group welcome dinner near the downtown area. Optional night shoot available.

Day 2: Wednesday, October 7th, 8 am – 8 pm – Workshop in Memphis

This day will be spent in Memphis featuring visits to Graceland, Lorraine Motel, National Civil Rights Museum, and the Cotton Museum.

Day 3: Thursday, October 8th, 8 am – 8 pm – Workshop in Osceola, Arkansas

Travel from Memphis to Osceola, Arkansas in the morning. The day will feature a visit to a local cotton field with dinner at the Hog Pen BBQ.

Day 4: Friday, October 9th, 8 am – 8 pm – Workshop in Blytheville, Arkansas

Travel from Osceola to Blytheville, Arkansas.  Much of the day will be spent photographing in this charming southern town. Dinner will be at the Dixie Pig.

Day 5: Saturday, October 10th, 8 am – 8 pm – Workshop in Oxford, Mississippi

Travel from Blytheville to Oxford, Mississippi. This day will be spent photographing this college town, home of Ole Miss football.  We may have time to watch a live game, pending the season’s football schedule.

Day 6: Sunday, October 11th, 8 am – 8 pm – Workshop in Oxford, Mississippi

Spend the entire day in Oxford. This day will feature a visit to Rowan Oak, the home of author William Faulkner.

Day 7: Monday, October 12th, 8 am – Departure back to Memphis

Travel from Oxford to Memphis airport for group departures.  Arrival time in Memphis will be around 9:30 am local time.

Day 8: TBD – Group photo review via Zoom

The workshop culminates with a group critique and photo review examining all participants’ work taken during the workshop.

QUESTIONS? 

Please contact LACP via email at info@lacphoto.org.

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