Twin Palms Publishers has released "Twelve Acres," the debut monograph by American photographer Henry O. Head, which offers a deeply personal exploration of teenage friendship and adolescent memories in the Ozark Mountains. The photography collection reimagines the emotional peaks and valleys of a defining friendship from Head's youth in the rugged Arkansas and Missouri wilderness.
From spring 2023 through summer 2024, Head embarked on an intensive photographic journey, revisiting the terrain of northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri where he spent his formative years. His travels took him back to the small towns and wild country of Ponca and Jasper, Purdy, Monett, and Pioneer – a landscape characterized by dramatic limestone bluffs shot through with veins of quartz, where cottonmouths coil menacingly on exposed tree roots beside slow-moving creeks, and alligator gar glide like phantoms through dark waters.
"Twelve Acres" captures the essence of boyhood lived outside city limits, in the shadows of towering sycamores, away from the constraints of institutions and the pressures of social order. The work unfolds as a progression through the seasons, conveying a restlessness and longing to prevent the inevitable rupture that comes with entering adult reality, with all its responsibilities and mundane obligations.
The monograph serves as a meditation on personal history, where different worlds quiver in a chaos of past and present forms, and stark flashes of imagery begin to wobble in an opaque well of memory. The photographer presents surreal moments where tops spin endlessly, animals with unquenchable thirst cup liquid light, and memory remains an ineffable mystery that defies easy categorization.
"Twelve Acres" functions as a reverie, wherein the past re-emerges through vivid imagery of boys with tick-bitten feet, their ears still ringing from the explosions of homemade fireworks, clothes permanently stained by the smoke of shoplifted cigarettes, and arms stretched desperately toward higher branches just out of reach.
Henry O. Head, born in 1993, is a self-taught photographer currently living in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His photographic work has gained recognition both internationally and locally, with exhibitions in South Korea as well as throughout Arkansas. His unique perspective draws from his deep connection to the Ozark region and his ability to translate personal memory into universal themes of adolescence, friendship, and the passage of time.
The "Twelve Acres" monograph is published by Twin Palms Publishers in a premium format measuring 10 x 12 inches. The book features 51 tritone plates across 96 pages, all printed on high-quality uncoated paper. The publication comes as a clothbound hardcover with a protective dust jacket, reflecting the artistic significance of the work. The ISBN is 978-1-936611-24-9, and the book is available for $85. Additional information and ordering details can be found at www.twinpalms.com.
