Written in Cane
My hometown of Clewiston is the largest producer of sugarcane in the United States. I grew up as a Miller, literally and metaphorically, as it is both my last name and the work my father devoted much of his life to. Fields of sugarcane were the familiar landscape we both grew up with, their stalks woven into the fabric of our family's archive.
To better understand what it was like growing up in the Glades, I asked my father to recount personal experiences and memories. I superimpose his handwritten recollections by documenative photographs of cane fields. Alongside them, I incorporate Polaroids and other family photographs, creating a juxtaposition between reality and the nostalgia of his experiences.
Through the pairing of contemporary landscapes, handwritten memories, and family photographs, this series reconstructs my father's experiences while examining how labor, place, and memory become inherited across generations. By tracing my family's relationship to sugarcane, I explore the ways a landscape can shape both personal identity and familial history. Ultimately, this series has allowed me to have a conversation with my father in a way we never had before.
