The South’s Past, Present, and Future ~ Gardens, Guns, and Surfer Girls
About two months ago, on my way through Charlotte, North Carolina, this amazing cover of Garden&Gun magazine jumped off the newsstand at me:
This cover might surprise everyone but the Southerners reading this post, but the magazine really is about people with guns and beautiful gardens. Some of the images within could have been taken out of the NRA board members’ living rooms and others seem inspired by views of Le Nôtre’s masterworks from the windows of Versailles.
With the surfer pictured here, you really do get a sense of what part of “21st Century Southern America” is about. This magazine knows who it is AND where it comes from. Well, sort of…
The magazine has expanded its scope for their wealthy Southerner readership by usurping their tropical playgrounds to the south into the magazine. Check this amazing piece out from their market description on their website:
Garden & Gun’s definition of the new South and its footprint include not only the states below the Mason-Dixon line but also the Caribbean. Its western border is Louisiana, the northern line the Virginias, the eastern seaboard to the east and Venezuela to the South.
Yes, I am well aware that “America” is two large continents strong, but “The South” has capital letters for a reason. It’s a strong place in the U.S. that has real traditions and rapidly evolving interests and activities. With that said, Garden&Gun as a title is much more punch than topic. This magazine sings to the crowd with the South in their hearts, but who are really trying to escape. The editors are drawing from both the ancient and modern meanings of the word “paradise” — from formal gardens to island hopping.
Check out Garden & Gun here. You’ll notice a strong desire to head to the warm south with their beautiful palm tree images among misty mountains –like this stretch of an image for “The South”:
There’s another image on their website of a wetland, which I personally prefer. I think it’s a much more real representation of some of the beautiful locales in the region the magazine claims to love. And those plus signs that you see are Flash rollover images with plants fashioned after an Aloha-print fabric.
A group of people who want to be true to place owe it to themselves not to inject paradise into their desire to escape from home. Furthermore, as a young magazine, they need to do more to distinguish themselves visually from National Geographic Traveler, Condé Naste Traveler, and other travel magazines. Although, to their credit, the name of the magazine does a pretty good job of doing just that.
By the way, I thought originally that the the surfer pictured on the cover is Liz Clark, a 2002 national interscholastic surf champion. She’s a Southern woman who travels in her 1966 40-foot sailboat, Swell. The cover credit simply says, “Surfer on Folly beach, SC. Photograph by Andy Anderson.” The article linked to the cover is called “Southern Wahine” by Gary Hawkins; it gives no last names of any of the women featured.
Side note: If you’re looking for great Asian beaches, Condé Naste has this article by Cynthia Rosenfeld.
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