
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens — A Narrative Landscape
Twin Cities corporate and editorial photographer Richard Fleischman presents twelve prints from the fabled Charleston, SC Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. Magnolia had some of the first enslaved peoples to come to North America. The photographs document the existing slave quarters remaining on the grounds, and their relationship with their landscape.
Fleischman says:
“In May 2023, my wife and I took a trip to Charleston, SC and one of the places we visited was the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. I was impressed by how they did not shy away from the horrific history of slavery and human suffering that happened at Magnolia. Touring the cabins that remained onsite was very, very moving to me in ways I hadn’t expected. The landscape there seemed to offer an echo of the Antebellum suffering, with it’s ghostly weeping willows, overwhelming greenness and weighty air, heavy with humidity. I went back to Charleston that October to try and dig deeper.”