Hi, I’m Darby.
I endeavor to live a creative life.
I believe in relentlessly following curiosity, acting with kindness whenever possible, and doing things you are bad at because just “the doing” matters.
I am a professional and amateur storyteller and artist.
Stories matter. It is how we relate, communicate, fall in love, or hate. See and be seen.
At a glance, my education and career may seem a bit all over the place, but stay with me here. The common thread is, and has always been, an exploration of the ways we tell stories.
My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication, Electronic Media Communication with a concentration in Photography. I minored in Psychology and Art.
While I was an undergrad, I worked under the incomparable Tom Jimison, Professor and Archivist of the collection that Harold Baldwin started at MTSU. I was responsible for preparing the collection for relocation to a temporary home at the Center for Popular Music. The archival arts impose order on chaos.
I fell in love with the quiet and beauty of an archive—which is why I chose MTSU’s Public History program with the Archival Management track. I found another fantastic mentor in Dr. Carroll Van West, then Professor of History, Director of the Center for Historic Preservation, and State of Tennessee Historian. I was drawn to the holistic approach of Historic Preservation and Cultural Resource Management.
My primary academic areas of focus are material conservation, archival management, dark tourism, historic preservation, folklore, oral history, and the history of the American South.
My thesis, “The Stories We Tell: Expanding Concepts of Dark Tourism and Cultural Identity in America,” explored dark tourism in the context of the construction of sociocultural identity in the United States. Examining how cultural attitudes shape memorialization practices, historic preservation of dark tourism properties and cultural resources reveals that the public is an equal partner in curating historical and cultural identity. History is shaped by the stories we tell, but the stories we tell, in turn, shape our understanding of history.
My professional areas of expertise include photography, marketing and communications, editorial work, freelance graphic and web design, and writing (ghost writing, under a pseudonym, and sometimes even under my own name).
My list of hobbies is ridiculous and vast. It includes but is not limited to making art, costuming, D&D GMing, board games, writing novels, 3D printing, painting, yoga, hiking, gardening, creating puzzles, consuming various media, and learning French.
I live in Murfreesboro, TN, with my husband, Andy, and our cats, Fionna and Ludo. I’m the proud mom of two wonderful adults, Nore and Aidan Shepherd.
I hope to continue exploring the curious and strange through photography, travel, and writing.
I can’t believe you read this far! Curiosity should always be rewarded, so here are some “behind the scenes” photos which include the hilarious ways photographers look when “getting the shot.”
Photo by Tom Jimison—His first iPhone panoroma, picturing his then student worker set in the beautiful chaos of his office. MTSU Photography Program Founder, Professor, and archival collection creator Harold Baldwin, Darby Campbell-Firkus then Student and Archival Assistant, and Tom Jimison, Professor of Photography and Baldwin Collection Archivist, December, 2012. Photo by J. Intintoli Documentation of the Baldwin Collection at MTSU 
2014 Staff of Collage, the MTSU student arts publication. I proudly served as the editor of photography. 
MTSU Staff Photographers J. Intintoli and Andy Heidt in the Fairview Studio 
Rutherford County Jail to photograph and record Meredith Dye discussing her research on women with life sentences in prison. Photo by J. Intintoli 
Photographing Spiders to illustrate Dr. John Otter’s Research. Photo by J. Intintoli 
Photographing Knightscope robots at Samsund in San Jose, CA. Photo by Andy Campbell-Firkus 
Testing out underwater camera for photoshoot! Photo by Andy Campbell-Firkus 
Santa Cruz, California, Photo by Andy Campbell-Firkus 
Santa Cruz, California, Photo by Andy Campbell-Firkus 
San Jose, California, Photo by Andy Campbell-Firkus 
My kiddos Nore and Aidan Shepherd at ages 12 and 8