By Susan Sipple Elliot, with an introduction by John E. Scholder
Birmingham Museum of Art/University Press of Mississippi, 1996
Today’s South is a melange of contrasting images. In this exhibition catalog forty-eight artists who currently live in or were born in the South have captured the essence of their region. All the photographs featured in this handsome volume were taken within the past ten years and therefore present a recent view of the modern South. Featured is the work of Shelby Lee Adams, Richard Albertine, Tim Buchman, Syndey Byrd, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Maude Schuyler Clay, William Christenberry, Chip Cooper, Birney Imes, Tom Jenkins, A. J. Meek, Curt Richter, Margaret Sartor, Melissa Springer, Wendy Watriss/Fred Baldwin, Fannie Tapper, and other notable artists. The technical range of the photographic work is large, including black-and-white, color, toned, collage, and computer-generated images. The subject matter is diverse, including the southern fascination with rituals, gentility, decay, belles, and remnants of the past. Juxtaposed are images of splendor, tackiness, tradition, and beauty-conveying all together the rich and varied culture of the American South. The text for this volume has been drawn from passages of southern literature and statements from the artists themselves.
