Join fine art photographer Keith Dotson walking around Clarksdale, Mississippi after dark
Ryan Coogler’s hit horror movie Sinners was set in the Mississippi Delta city of Clarksdale, but it was actually filmed near New Orleans, Lousiana. In this video, Teena and I will walk you around the real Clarksdale.
UPDATE: March 15, 2026 — Congratulations to actor Michael B. Jordan on winning the Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in Sinners at the 2026 Academy Awards (shouldn’t that be leading roles?). Congratulations also to Sinners director Ryan Coogler for winning the Oscar for his work on writing the Best Original Screenplay for the movie. Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for her work on Sinners. Ludwig Goransson was awarded Best Original Score.
At the time I released this video, Ryan Coogler’s horror movie Sinners was a hit at the box office, and while it was filmed in nearby Louisiana, it was set to portray 1930s Clarksdale.
Spoiler alert: Sinners is a horror movie. But to me it seemed like two movies — the second half a horror movie which I ultimately found unsatisfying.
But the first half was about life in the Mississippi Delta for black Americans in the era of Jim Crow.
This part of the movie was much more fascinating to me. Coogler did an amazing job of capturing an imaginary essence of this place as a hot dusty cotton region where blues music was born and nurtured.
I first came to the Delta many years ago to make photographs because of blues music. I wanted to walk the same streets that were walked by Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters and Pinetop Perkins and Charley Patton and John Lee Hooker, who was one of many musicians born in Clarksdale.
Willie Brown, Son House, Ike Turner, Junior Parker and Sam Cooke were also born in Clarksdale.
Muddy Waters moved to Clarksdale as a child, as did playwright Tennessee Williams.
In addition to blues music, Coogler also integrated ingredients like folk magic, juke joints, and the connection between the Delta region and Chicago, to help spice-up the flavor of the story.
And I’ve returned to photograph the Delta many times since. I love it there but I don’t want to gloss over the problems in Clarksdale or the Delta in general.
It was not a safe or positive place for the Black blues musicians in the 1930s, and it still has more than its fair share of problems today. Residents of Clarksdale couldn’t even go to see Sinners in a theater because all the cinemas have been closed for years. This fact prompted director Ryan Coogler to bring special showings to Clarksdale.
BBC Story about Sinners Showing in Clarksdale
The BBC covered Ryan Coogler’s showings of Sinners in Clarksdale, which had to be specially arranged since the community hasn’t had a cinema for years.
BBC: “The Mississippi town behind the box office hit Sinners.”
More videos about Clarksdale
As mentioned earlier, I’ve been to Clarksdale several times to explore the streets and make photographs. Below are a few other videos from my previous visits.
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