Untitled (Elvis with Guitar), photograph by Terry Wood, 1956.
Delta State University’s Wright Art Center Gallery will present a show about the American South pictured through the eyes of numerous photographers entitled “Tell Me a Story: Photographing the American South,” opening on Sunday, Jan.14 with a public reception from 4-6 p.m. at the Wright Art Center Gallery on the campus.
The body of work is on loan to the gallery from the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson and includes photographs by William Christenberry, William Eggleston, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Milly Moorhead, Tom Rankin, Maggie Lee Sayre, Jack Spencer, Lea Barton, Kendall Messick, William Greiner, Sandra Russell Clark, John T. Edge, Birney Imes, Carl Mydans, Robert Hubbard, Eudora Welty, and Bern and Franke Keating.
Like stories, photographs invite us to observe life around us and within us. They tell us a story of an instant: when William Faulkner and his dog stood just so; when Eudora Welty looked straight into our eyes. They tell a history and allow us to ask questions. There is no single shared story in this exhibition. Rather, images of the land, the people and the every day details of the South will mean different things to each viewer and will resonate depending on individual experiences and perspectives.
The exhibit which is free and open to the public can be viewed through Feb. 24. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday 8 a.m. – 8:30 p.m. and on Friday 8 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., closed on weekends, holidays and interims. For more information, please contact the DSU art department at (662) 846-4720.