I was born in southwest Mississippi and grew up in Los Angeles. I went to UCLA for my B.A. in Political Science and graduated in 2006. I am currently working on my Photography M.F.A. at Savannah College of Art and Design. I work with film and digital media. I explore different subjects, from life in rural America to the complexity of international conflicts. I am very interested in the social climate of contemporary society. I am a social documentary photographer, but I try not to limit myself by labels. I'm constantly working to better my craft and make pictures that elicit change. JB Rasor 2016
Morocco is an ancient land. In Marrakesh a clay wall surrounds the oldest part of the city, the Medina, which is a maze of alleys, souks and doorways. The streets move fast in the Medina. Motorbikes sail by, merchants lure you into their shops and unofficial guides solicit their services. Arabic and French tongues saturate the air but Westerners are always addressed in English. It’s almost impossible to blend in, but in a land so foreign, why bother? Sometimes it’s best to be the outsider. Morocco is a place to begin a journey. Artists, explorers and writers have come here for millennium. Everything holds a fascination. The place and its people will change you. When you return, you won’t be an outsider anymore.
While certain truths haunt the past of small towns in the Deep South, the people are what shape the future. The place of my birth, Gloster, Mississippi, is one such town. It has a population just shy of a thousand people. Located in the southwest corner of the state, bordering Louisiana, it was named after Confederate Captain Arthur Willis Gloster. Gloster, the man, was an engineer and his railroad transported Mississippi timber to Natchez, where it was shipped down river to New Orleans. Timber is what defined, and still defines, the economy of Gloster. Gloster is an idealistic place. The people are proud of their town. The challenges facing the rural south are prodigious in scale, but the people of Gloster go on living their lives despite that. This project is a look into a few of those lives.
I began this series as a conventional documentary, exploring the world of boxing. In a small, and sultry, gym I was introduced to a young fighter. After photographing several of his bouts, he became the central character in this series. When I first met Ray “CR” Barlow, he was very shy. He held his head low, but there was a determination about him. Almost instantly, I stopped looking at him as just a fighter. He wasn’t just a fighter. He was a man. A son of God. CR’s journey to become a professional boxer is intensely vivid. His struggle parallels that seemingly infinite struggle so central to the human condition. Joyce Carol Oates wrote, that “to write about boxing is to write about oneself. No other subject is so intensely personal.” Only in boxing is the fight to win displayed with such clarity. CR is seeking the top spot, and, in all likelihood that will never happen. Yet, like many of us, he continues that struggle. Will it have all been worth it? I think so.