DSTO Moore: Giving People Flowers While They Can Still Smell Them
If you spend enough time in Macon, someone will mention DSTO Moore. As you move through Macon’s creative corridors—popping into the Rabbit Hole, leafing through portraits at Gallery West, or skimming the pages of Macon Magazine—you’re likely to see the work of DSTO Moore. And if you haven’t, you will. That’s a promise and a prophecy.
Folks might call DSTO a photographer, and they won’t be wrong. But to stop there would be like calling Little Richard “a man who danced.” DSTO doesn’t just take portraits. He restores dignity. He builds legacy. He roots people to the place that raised them, or welcomes them to the city that chose them — or the city they chose.
DSTO isn’t just a photographer. He’s a civic poet with a lens—someone who captures people not just in frame, but in full humanity.
“He’s a man using art as a form of stewardship, legacy, and emotional justice.”
His name stands for Don’t Stop Trying, Overcome, and every project he launches feels like a hymn to that idea. His chosen name is a declaration of strength. He wears his strength on his chest, printed onto T-shirts that become his walking creed. One day the message is I am rooting for everyone from Macon, a quote he humorously attributes to himself. The next day his shirt might read: I am a work of art. And he is!
Finding his Perspective
He first picked up a camera about a decade ago after leaving a job with Coca-Cola, took a single class downtown with dreams of fashion photography, and found his purpose instead on Macon sidewalks and in her communities. Since then, he’s become the city’s unofficial archivist of those who are rarely celebrated—and even more rarely seen.
DSTO lives as if every step is a chance to lift up someone and say I see you.
“DSTO has a way of making people feel instantly welcome and included,” says Cara Heard, local artist and co-manager of 478 Creatives, the Middle Georgia collective of artists, writers, and visionaries shaping the region’s renaissance. “He does this not just in front of his camera, but in his presence, and you don’t have to know him well to feel the impact of his work or his spirit. Macon is better because he’s in it.”
This past April, DSTO walked 100 miles through Macon in 30 days to promote health, connection, and community. But it wasn’t just for exercise—it was for presence. On Instagram, he wrote:
"This April, I’m walking 100 miles—not just for the steps, but for the stories... No matter your race, gender, religion, politics, or sexuality, you’re welcome to join me. Let’s move forward together... 100 miles, one conversation at a time. Who’s in?"
That quote could serve as his mission statement. Because everything DSTO does is about walking with people—beside them, not ahead of them, and always with love.
Pleasant Hill Proud
DSTO grew up in Pleasant Hill, Macon’s historic Black neighborhood that was once a thriving hub of musicians, doctors, and leaders—until it was sliced in half by an interstate. But the heart of Pleasant Hill never left DSTO. And Pleasant Hill will never leave DSTO’s heart.
His grandfather, Young “Buddy” Barron, lived more than 70 years in that neighborhood and reached the age of 101—singing, dancing, and dressing sharp until the very end. The city proclaimed April 6th as “Buddy Barron Day.”
When we sat together at The Rabbit Hole —a hub of community spirit run by creative Autumn Van Gunten and artist Cedric Smith (and also a gorgeous home decor shop!)— DSTO told me about his current projects. He isn’t brainstorming— he’s working on them. Because while many people carry around more beautiful ideas than they can ever execute, DSTO does the rarest thing of all: he follows through on his visions.
Each of his current projects could fill an entire exhibition—and might just do that one day:
•Black Men Smile: A portrait series capturing joy and vulnerability in Black men who’ve been taught to mask both. “Maybe they don’t have anything to smile about,” DSTO said, “or they don’t feel safe letting down their guard. Black men don’t say ‘I love you’ to each other. I say it, whether they say it back or not.” DSTO is changing the community’s culture with every smile he invokes.
•Macon Music Project: A stunning, ongoing collection of portraits of local musicians—each one photographed with an old speaker once owned by DSTO’s uncle Jerald. So far, he’s photographed around 50 musicians who have also signed the speaker. His vision? “To gather them all in one photo—with the autographed speaker—and have them perform as a group.” It’s part portraiture, part living monument. “Some of them have already passed,” he said quietly. The speaker, with all those signatures, is Macon’s family tree of sound, branching out to continue the city’s musical legacy.
•Photographing senior Black men: “So they can smell their flowers before the funeral,” he told me. Many of the men have never had a professional photo taken.
•Passing the lens to his daughter: DSTO is teaching his 11-year-old daughter photography—not just for art, but for legacy. He wants her to have a path, a role, a place. That’s the thing about DSTO: he doesn’t just inherit legacy—he activates it, like his grandfather and like his mother, Yvonne Moore, who’s currently seeking her family roots in rural Georgia.
“DSTO is more than an artist, he’s a visionary. Through his lens and his leadership, he’s not just documenting Macon’s story, he’s shaping its future with love, grit, and intention.”
With that intention, DSTO has captured Macon’s movers and shakers, and her lesser-known citizens, and he’s always expanding his circle of subjects—photographing amputees, people with Down syndrome, the drag community, and folks from Latinx, Asian, and Native backgrounds.
“My goal is to bring positivity and people from all demographics together,” his social media profile reads. That’s not PR. It’s practice. When he photographs one of his senior Black men, he frames them with care and then gives them the photograph framed and delivered by hand.
It’s no surprise that DSTO and I talk like old friends. We both believe in witnessing as an art form — in making room for those who haven’t had a platform. The connection we share—centered on honoring people, giving visibility, and making meaning rather than money—is exactly the kind of soul-knotted bond many people feel with DSTO.
His photographs have been shown at the Tubman Museum, Douglas Theatre, Triangle Arts, Ucreate Macon, JBA, the McEachern Art Center, the Macon Arts Alliance, and Gallery West, where his work has shared wall space with the likes of Kirk West, who once photographed the great bluesmen of Chicago. In this way, DSTO is part of a modern Macon lineage: documentarian, dreamer, and doer.
You can find his Macon Music project and more on Instagram. His “Macon Chose Me” portrait series runs in Macon Magazine — They spotlight Part I of Kirsten West’s story in the April/May Women’s issue and Part II in the June/July’s Music issue.
More Than Just a Local Artist
DSTO photographs regularly for Macon Magazine and is a frequent presence at 478 Creatives gatherings.
His exhibitions include:
Take a Walk in My Shoes – featuring portraits of unhoused Maconites, with their actual shoes displayed beside their photographs
We Are Pleasant Hill – a tribute to his beloved neighborhood
Macon Hidden Gems – showing the overlooked faces and places of the city
My Bike Series – created for Bike Walk Macon
Macon Chose Me – spotlighting vital citizens
And many more
“DSTO is the kind of person every community hopes for but rarely gets. He shows up—not just with his camera, but with his whole heart. He’s always cheering others on, lifting people up, and making sure folks feel seen and celebrated. His presence reminds us that support is a verb—and DSTO lives that out every day.”
DSTO also received the Downtown Ambassador Award from NewTown Macon in 2020—recognizing not just his art, but his impact.
Legacy Through Love
You don’t need to read his bio to understand DSTO’s purpose. It’s written all over his photos—and in the way he moves through a room. He doesn’t interrupt. He enters. And if you’re lucky enough to sit beside him while he speaks about someone he’s photographed, you’ll hear the reverence of a man who sees holiness in every face.
“DSTO Moore is the quintessential neighbor and friend you want in your life,” says fellow Macon artist She Keene, a huge Macon supporter and celebrant of female empowerment through her artwork. “He has a contagious love of life that you can't NOT feel if you are in his orbit, and a unique talent for seeing stories in people and using his camera to share those stories with the world. I love DSTO and am proud he allows me in his orbit every so often."
DSTO has that effect on everyone lucky enough to cross his path. He’s come a long way in his life, and worked hard, to now spread his philosophy of love and acceptance through Macon’s streets and halls. He’s held here by his family legacy and the new legacy he’s building for himself, his children, and Macon.
“Life isn’t easy,” he told Middle Georgia Times. “But you gotta keep trying.”
DSTO Moore is trying. And because of that, Macon is becoming more visible and more human.
First Held Here Profile
This profile illustrates why DSTO is the first person featured in this series. Not just because of his talent, which is obvious, but because of the spirit behind it. From the moment we met — at my first 478 Creatives gathering, where I hardly knew anyone — DSTO was the first to pause, truly look me in the eye, and begin a real conversation. Before the night ended, he said, “We’ve got to work together — you write about the people I photograph, and I’ll photograph the people you write about.” Naturally a moment like that stuck with me! Like me, DSTO doesn’t spotlight people for money or recognition. We do it to lift people up, to shine a light on the soul of this place and the people who make it what it is. We both know what it’s like to feel uncertain and still move forward. As DSTO told me recently, he lives by Gratitude and Abundance, and refuses to let F.E.A.R — False Evidence Appearing Real — stop him from living his life to the fullest. I feel that, too. We’re both works in progress, but we show up with open hearts. And that’s why he’s not just the first feature — he’s the reason this whole project made sense in the first place.
DSTO Details:
Instagram handle: @dstomoore
Business: DSTO Moore Photography, Macon, GA
Favorite quote: “I want to give people their flowers while they can still smell them.”
First gallery visit: Five years ago. Now, his photos hang all over town.
THE DSTO MOORE GALLERY
About the Author
Cindi Brown is a Georgia-born writer, porch-sitter, and teller of truths — even the ones her mama once pinched her for saying out loud. She runs Porchlight Press from her 1895 house with the creaking floorboards and an open door for stories with soul. She’s working on a book called Blood on a Southern Road about the ghosts we carry and the songs they leave behind. When she’s not scribbling about Southern music, small towns, and the wild gospel that lives in red clay soil, you can find her listening for the next thing worth saying.