River Baptism

River Baptism captures a rural community’s baptism ritual in the Tallapoosa River, Alabama, where congregants from a nearby church gathered for a full-immersion ceremony one Sunday morning in early June.

The series examines water-based rituals across the American South. Through medium-format photography and field research, Richards documents rivers and tributaries where communities have long practiced baptism and other forms of spiritual immersion. The project explores how these landscapes preserve cultural memory, shape collective identity and sustain enduring relationships between people and place.