Copious Notes

Click the play button to hear Sarah Hoskins talk about her work in Central Kentucky and see a slide show of her images.

Equine photography brought Sarah ­Hoskins to Lexington. African-American hamlets around the city and in Central ­Kentucky made the Bluegrass feel like home.

“I was introduced to one woman named Lydia Talbert, and I was ­introduced to Maddoxtown Church,” Hoskins, left, says of her friend from the New Zion ­community who has since died. “And from there, what happens is, it gets to be a trust thing. I met one person and they led me to somebody else, and they led me to somebody else. I never thought I would be doing this for 10 years.”

Now, the results of her decade of ­visiting New Zion, Uttingertown and other communities are on display at The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky. Hoskins will give an address at UK’s ­Worsham Theatre on Friday as part of the Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series.

“I think it’s really important that it is in Kentucky,” says Hoskins, who lives with her family north of Chicago. “I’ve always given lectures, and this work was incorporated with other ­projects. This is the first time I will give a lecture solely on this project, and it’s an honor to do it in Kentucky.”

She says she talked to residents of the communities where she worked to make sure they were OK with having their pictures displayed at the ­museum. Many residents plan to come to the lecture. When she has spoken before, Hoskins has ended her lectures with a photo and recording of the Jimtown Male Chorus, and her camera can be heard clicking in the ­background. The group will sing at Hoskins’ lecture.

Her appearance bookends this year’s Robert C. May series with strong Kentucky themes; the first one, last fall, showcased the ­photography of The Washington Post’s Jahi ­Chikwendiu, who grew up in ­Lexington and started his photography career at the Herald-Leader.

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