My first home in North Carolina was Marshall, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene flooding in September 2024. I kept an office above the café next to the courthouse until the end of 2023. I walked the streets of Marshall to Blannahassett Island, down Back Street to The Depot, and back up South Main Street to the courthouse most weekdays. After the flood, I did not return to downtown Marshall until December 2025. I kind of wanted it to live on in my memory as it was for as long as possible.

How cute was Marshall, really? Few know that Amazon Prime Video chose it to portray the fictional town of Clanton in a $170 million attempt at its first streaming blockbuster, The Peripheral. At the time, it was among the top ten most expensive series ever produced.

For three months in late 2021, a 250-person film crew took over the town. Most residents seemed to consider it an annoying disruption. I found the process fascinating and photographed everything I could—which was a lot. (My truck appears four times in the series.) I created a tour based on both the experience and my photos in anticipation of the series’ success. The original tour website content is below. I was in communication with the crew as they prepared for the filming of season two, which had a green light until the Writers’ Strike pushed the show’s production timeline beyond reasonable continuity and forced its cancellation. There will be no revival of the series in Marshall.

The images to the left are from my tour book. Orange borders denote series screenshots employed in fair use comparison with my photos from the set. There was a tour script that better explained some shots. The Peripheral BTS images are used with permission from Executive Producer Vincenzo Natali.

You can still watch season one of the series on Prime here. It is actually pretty good!
https://www.amazon.com/The-Peripheral-Season-1/dp/B0B8TFMYXZ