Sweet home Mississippi

A portrait of the blues and the people who play them

Published: Aug 25, 2015

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Rev John Wilkins is a preacher and plays his guitar at a church in Como, Mississippi, on Sundays. He also travels the country, performing with his band

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Johnnie Billington, guitar musician, owned the Blues Academy in Lambert, Mississippi, where he helped the youth play the blues and stay out of trouble. He passed away in 2013

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TL Williams is a guitar player who lives near Lexington, Mississippi. I photographed him at his home

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Pat Thomas, a great blues guitar player and singer, in a box car train in his hometown of Leland, Mississippi. He is the son of bluesman James “Son” Thomas

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Bill Abel plays in a small bar in Bentonia, Mississippi, and lives in Duncan, also in Mississippi. He is a blues guitar player and singer, and is known for making guitars out of driftwood from the Mississippi river and also from old cigar boxes

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Robert “Bilbo” Walker, guitar musician and singer, at the old Sarah’s Kitchen in Clarksdale, Mississippi. I didn’t get to learn about his hometown, but he does travel a fair bit playing gigs. When I shot him, he had just returned from Amsterdam