About
Kate Medley (she/her) is a North Carolina-based visual journalist documenting the American South.
Kate is author of the coffee table book of photographs THANK YOU PLEASE COME AGAIN (2024), for which she was a James Beard finalist. The book has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN, among others. It was named a Best Book of 2024 by NPR, and won the 2024 Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters prize.
Primarily working as a photojournalist covering national news across the American South, Kate’s work focuses on storytelling and environmental portraiture, often exploring issues of social justice and the shifting politics of this region.
Kate’s roots are in Mississippi, where she has investigated Civil Rights -era cold cases, covered the devastating impacts of Hurricane Katrina, and chased down hot tamales and Koolicles in the Mississippi Delta. She currently lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her husband and two children.
Kate received a Bachelors in Photojournalism from the University of Montana and a Masters in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi. For ten years, she led the brand storytelling initiative at Whole Foods Market, focused on bringing the stories of farmers, fishers, and ranchers from all over the world into the store by way of documentary films, photographs, and narrative.
Kate is a member of Women Photograph and the National Press Photographers Association. She is an FAA Part 107-certified drone pilot and certified in the International Women’s Media Foundation’s course for Hostile Environment & Emergency First Aid Training.
A partial list of her clients include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR, Duke University, Starbucks, Whole Foods Market, JP Morgan Chase Foundation, Goldman Sachs, Visit North Carolina, and AARP.
If you’re interested in documentary filmmaking and commercial video work, please visit Medley Media at medley-media.com.
Photo by Rory Doyle for The New York Times
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Press
The New York Times: Where Southerners Go to Fuel the Tank and Feed the Family, by Kim Severson
NPR: ‘Thank You Please Come Again’ is an Ode to the Food of Southern Gas Stations, with Debbie Elliott
CNN: The South’s hidden gems? Its diverse gas stations, according to this photographer, by Jacqui Palumbo
The Splendid Table: Thank You, Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South, with Francis Lam
The Washington Post: Good eats in the U.S. South’s Gas Stations, Convenience Stores and Quick Stops, by Kenneth Dickerman
FORBES Magazine: The Best Food In The South Served In These Surprising Locations, by Leslie Kelly
Filling Up: How Gas Stations in the American South Mirror Their Communities, with Lena Gellar at Indy Week
NPR: Our Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2024
On the Road for the South’s Best Gas Station Food, on WUNC’s Due South
Deep South Dining features Thank You Please Come Again with Malcolm White
Southern Filling Stations Explored in New Photo Book “Thank You Please Come Again”, on WABE’s City Lights
Musée Magazine: Vanguard of Photography Culture, interview
Kate Medley Documents the Southern Treasure of Gas Station Food, on WFAE’s SouthBound podcast with Tommy Tomlinson
The Mississippi Arts Hour with Photojournalist Kate Medley, on Mississippi Public Broadcasting
12 Southern Foods to Give as Holiday Gifts, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
2023 Gift Guide, by Civil Eats
BATCH: Kate Medley - Meat and Three & 10 Dollars Worth of Regular, on The Bitter Southerner podcast
A Taste of Southern Culture: Documentarian Kate Medley Discusses Her Work at MOCA in The Virginian-Pilot
Q&A with Photojournalist Kate Medley at The Editor’s Desk
Eyes on the South: Democratic Spaces in The Oxford American
Gas Station South in Southern Cultures
Meat and Three & Ten Dollars’ Worth of Regular in The Bitter Southerner
O Moldy Night: The Jell-O Exhibit You Need to See to Believe on Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street
O Moldy Night in The Bitter Southerner
A Spoken Dish Asks Southerners: What Is Your Food Identity on NPR
The Eudora Welty Portrait Reader in The Bitter Southerner
Kate Medley—Documentary Storyteller at Whole Foods Market on Good Food Jobs
Recent Clients
