Shadow and Reflection: Visions of Florida’s Sacred Landscapes
Suzanne Williamson and John Capouya, 2011
For thousands of years in what we call Florida, Indigenous peoples gathered together to transform their environment, building mounds and structures with earth, shells and sand. The act of creating the mounds marked a group’s place in the world, as they shared common interests, ancestry and beliefs.
Working in collaboration with nonfiction writer John Capouya, Suzanne Williamson explores this early part of Florida's history, focusing on the accumulated layers of human narrative that exist in the landscape. Drawing the viewer through the camera lens, she reaches for the stories that are embedded in the mounds…
Pinellas Point Mound, Pinellas County, FL, 2009. Through the trees on the mound.
Crystal River Archaeological State Park, Citrus County FL, 2009. Palm overlooking the Crystal River.
Anderson/Narvaez Mound, Pinellas County, FL 2010. Prehistoric shells cover the mound summit.
Emerson Point Preserve, Manatee County, FL 2009. Path around the mound.
Crystal River Archaeological State Park, Citrus County FL, 2010. Wind, light and shadow.
Crystal River Archaeological State Park, Citrus County, FL, 2010. Backlit view of the temple mound.
Mound Key, Lee County, FL, 2011. Looking back from the summit.
Emerson Point Preserve, Manatee County, FL 2009. Philodendron climbs a tree by the temple mound at the Portavant Mound complex.
Crystal River Archaeological State Park, Citrus County, FL 2009. A view the temple mound overlooking the Crystal River.
Along the Calusa Heritage Trail, Pineland, Lee County, FL 2011. A stand of gumbo limbo trees on the trail.
Anderson/Narvaez Mound, Pinellas County, FL 2010. Light on the mound summit.
Lake Jackson Archaeological State Park, Leon County, FL, 2011. The borrow pit.
Maximo Point Park, Pinellas County FL, 2010. Prehistoric shells embedded in palm tree roots.
Crystal River Archaeological State Park, Citrus County, FL 2009. Profile of the temple Mound.
Sacred Lands, Anderson/Narvaez Mound, Pinellas County, FL 2010. Prehistoric shells on the mound.
Fort Center, Glades County, FL 2011. A geometrically carved ditch meets the bank of the Fisheating Creek.
Ormond Mound, Volusia County, FL 2007.
Green Mound, Volusia County, FL, 2007. Live oaks grow on the mound.
Shell Mound near Cedar Key, Levy County, FL 2010.
Mt. Royal, Putnam County, FL 2010. Pond near the ceremonial mound complex.
Lake Jackson Archaeological State Park, Leon County, FL, 2011. Looking toward the large earthen mound.
Crystal River Archaeological State Park, Citrus County, FL, 2008. Spanish moss frames a mound.