Vaughn Sills‘ book, “Places of the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens,” published by Trinity University Press with an intro by Hilton Als, has been receiving much deserved praise from several quarters. Filled with beautiful black and white photographs of gardens and gardeners throughout the South, Vaughns images honor these places of the spirit.
Last December, in MarthaStewart.com, Stacey Hervela wrote: “Every year, dozens of books cross our desks (a real perk of this job!) but my hands-down favorite of 2010 was Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens by photographer Vaughn Sills.” Doug Oster, in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes: “Every once in a while, a unique and wonderful book appears. “Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens” from Trinity University Press is one of those extraordinary books.” This article also includes a terrific multi-media slide show of Vaughn’s photographs and her narration.
In 2009 she exhibited images from this portfolio at the U.S. Botanical Garden‘s West Orangerie Gallery in Washington DC. She will also be exhibiting them at the Trustman Gallery, Simmons College, Boston later this year and the Gibbs Museum of Art, Charleston SC in 2012. Vaughn exhibited photographs from her series, “Beyond Words” at the Davis Orton Gallery in July, 2010.