I’m Crystal Hardison, a photographer drawn to quiet places with loud skies. My work moves between the mountains of West Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay of Virginia, and the marshes and woods of North Carolina.
I’m not chasing perfection. I’m chasing mood. A trawler against a heavy sky, a path through shadowed trees, the stillness of water before a storm — these are the moments I keep returning to.
For me, photography isn’t about decoration but about preservation — holding on to the tension, silence, and beauty that often go unnoticed. My hope is that these images let you feel a piece of that stillness, carried home in shadow and light.
Photographed in the Carolina woods, where most of my work begins