# Jon B. Carroll

Jon B. Carroll (born 1965) is an American photographer. He is known for his photographs of rural communities and drawings of the Black Belt region of the lower South.

## Education and early life

Born in Sheffield, England, Carroll's family is part of an insular Mormon group that settled in the black belt region in the early 1850s. He earned a BA in Architecture and Masters Landscape Architecture at Auburn University's School of Architecture and briefly studied at Harvard University. He then worked in the San Juan mountains of Colorado in a mine and as a mountain guide based in Silverton, Colorado. His only public statement is via a YouTube channel discussing photography and influences. His work compels us to question the complicit role architecture and built form serve in systemic racism.

### Work

In 2017, he took photographs and videos at the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns Oregon. Carroll and his German shepard dog were allowed to enter the compound for over a week. The photographs and video were later made part of the award-winning documentary film No Man's Land.
He was subsequently awarded a Zilphia P. Horton residency grant to document a marginalized community in Dothan, Alabama, named "Baptist Bottoms." This was part of his graduate research documenting the community's architecture as former slaves migrated to nearby towns forming community across the lower South. In a class he taught at Wallace Community College, an essay by a student discussed police brutality and their involvement in the drug trade in her community of Baptist Bottoms.

## Controversy

During the Baptist Bottoms project, he (illegally) photographed a series of documents from the Internal Affairs department for the Dothan Police Department of black citizens claims of drug planting and missing evidence. He published the photographs on a website, the "Henry Report," which garnered national headlines and millions of views. The officers named in the documents, including the police chief, were revealed to be members of a "Neo-confederate organization" that "advocated for blacks to return to Africa [and] published that the civil rights movement is really a Jewish conspiracy and that blacks have lower IQ's".
Carroll declined interviews and directed The Washington Post, Southern Poverty Law Center, The New York Times, 60 Minutes and Slate to speak directly with alleged victims. Due to his refusal to speak to media, he was widely doubted and city officials at the time claimed the photographs were fake. President of the Dothan NAACP Paul Carroll defended him and said it was "his right as an artist to not be mistaken as a journalist or blogger". "He takes beautiful photographs of our community and has drawn attention to what has long been overlooked. The national media is refusing to interview victims we are representing and it is not his role to provide a narrative of their experiences".
In 2016, a federal civil rights investigation was opened by the Department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder due to Carroll's photographs. The FBI found the documents authentic but found no current systemic abuse in the Dothan Police Department. Alleged victims named in the documents were being interviewed when former Alabama US Attorney Jeff Sessions took over as US Attorney general under the incoming Trump administration. The investigation was shut down, and victims never cleared of potential wrongful convictions. The photographs had falsely been depicted as "fake" by Dothan officials and District Attorney Douglas Valeska. Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish described the behavior of sharing photos as that of a "loon." Both Parrish and Valeska stated in press conferences there had never been an allegation of drug planting during their tenures. However subsequent court documents, depositions, and internal affairs files, the former head of Dothan's Internal Affairs Department Keith Gray, along with the testimony of former Dothan city prosecutor Kalia Lane of over a hundred cases she referred to the FBI, and the FBI's investigation proved these statements to have been false.
As part of the Dothan project, he discovered an inmate named Kharon Davis, who had been held in a city jail for over a decade and denied trial. Following publication of his photographs of Kharon the New York Times published a series of articles detailing Davis' case and corruption by the District Attorney's office. Davis' case remains the worst example in American jurisprudence of a man being charged with a crime and denied a trial over 10 years.
The District Attorney subsequently abandoned plans to run for state attorney general, and was forced to retire.
Carroll continues photographing the South's cultural landscapes and owns and operates a ranch in rural Alabama.