My photographs imply and portray human character by showing people’s possessions and castoffs, their public representations in the form of signs, their arranged or haphazard spaces, and the stories told by the surface marks they leave behind. In some sense these are environmental portraits with the person framed out, invisible except by close examination of what’s left. The actions recorded in the things and places people have made, damaged, repaired, preserved or restored tell more than a smile or a pose, and hide less. I photograph the telling details of human effort. The narrative clues contained in these details not only hint at hopes and frustrations, but also demonstrate in a broader sense the inevitability of leaving more of yourself on view than you had intended. My work has been shown in galleries across Southwest Virginia and in the O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Virginia. Visit www.KirkCarter.com for more.