The restaurants are relatively the same, architecturally speaking, as are the menu, the prices, and the experience. Whether you like it or not, Waffle House is your neighborhood diner, replicated thousands of times over. I felt that I needed a constant from which to study our built environment, and the relative sameness of Waffle House restaurants allowed me that ability. Why Waffle House? Why not McDonald's or Hardee's? Three reasons: consistency, personal relationship, and the chain's iconic status.
WAFFLE HOUSE HASH BROWNS FULL
I ordered a full breakfast at the first restaurant of the day and would order coffee and a side of toast at the remaining stores, as it was customary for me to visit multiple locations in one day while I was traveling. Not only did it give the photographs the authenticity I wanted, but it also compensated the restaurant for taking up a table, especially during prime dining hours. I wanted to have a complete Waffle House experience every time. My approach had its own rules: I would eat at every Waffle House I entered and make images only from where I was seated. These photographs contemplate our volatile political and economic climate and do so explicitly from the vantage point of Waffle House restaurants. While I did not want the tonality of these photographs altered by those events, in truth, they were. I also began “Waffle House Vistas” against the backdrop of challenging political times: the trauma of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and the activism that followed the rhetoric of the 2018 midterm elections and their consequences the threat and eventual occurrence of a government shutdown over the holidays. But while the Waffle House feels like a “safe space” for such discussions, it has not, it is not without its own controversies. And Waffle House is the perfect place to have this conversation - beloved as a Southern cultural icon and scattered throughout our region like hash browns on a grill. These photographs ask viewers to look up from their hash browns and acknowledge the institutions and structures that create real, yet rarely acknowledged boundaries that feel impossible to break through for much of this country.
Each photograph looks out from booths and chairs, making the viewer a witness to intertwined narratives of poverty, transience, and politics. In each instance, the point of view is the customer’s.
WAFFLE HOUSE HASH BROWNS WINDOWS
The resulting photography project, “Waffle House Vistas,” collects images that document Southern communities as seen through the windows of Waffle Houses. I also wanted to ask questions about our society and our social, economic, and political divisions. I wanted to see the surrounding architecture, catalog adjacent businesses, and understand the public and commercial space around each restaurant. I did it because I wanted to see through each restaurant’s windows. Nor did I do it because of my affinity toward Waffle House. I didn't do it as a testament to Waffle House’s cultural importance in the South. Now, let me address the other question: What compelled me to spend the better part of 2018 traveling throughout the southeastern United States with the sole purpose of visiting Waffle House restaurants? My preferred accompaniment to that crispy mass of potatoes is a two-egg breakfast, scrambled, with wheat toast, a side of bacon, crispy, and black coffee. Let me get the most important thing out of the way first: I like my hash browns scattered and covered.
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