How Would You 'Picture The South'?

How Would You 'Picture The South'?
June 22, 2012
by Claire O'Neill - NPR

Since 1996, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta has been hiring photographers with a very basic assignment, completely open to interpretation: Picture the South. It's a clever way for the museum to both build its collection and encourage artists to find inspiration in the region. And the results vary widely.

"It would be really hard to hang all these projects side by side," says Brett Abbott, curator of photography at the museum.

Except — that's exactly what they're doing. An exhibit that opened June 9 features work by the three most recently commissioned photographers: Shane Lavalette, Kael Alford and Martin Parr.

Will with Banjo, 2011
Shane Lavalette

Spit in the Swamp, 2010
Shane Lavalette

Kaylen Swinging, 2010
Shane Lavalette

Tommy's Bed, 2010
Shane Lavalette

Ground Zero, 2010
Shane Lavalette

Birds in Flight, 2010
Shane Lavalette

Bill on his Porch, 2010
Shane Lavalette

Athens Morning, 2011
Shane Lavalette

America Street, 2011
Shane Lavalette

Po' Monkey on his 70th Birthday, 2010
Shane Lavalette

Spirit Bottles, 2011
Shane Lavalette

Past commissions by the High Museum include Sally Mann, Alex Webb, Emmet Gowin and Richard Misrach, all pretty big names — with pretty big differences.

"That's what's fun about it," says Abbott, who has been with the museum a bit over a year. "Each perspective on the South is going to be subjective, and it's going to be entirely different from the next. A Southerner's perspective is going to be different from a ... British citizen's perspective. And it's the sum of all these perspectives that becomes very interesting."

These three photographers are a case in point:

Shane Lavalette, 25, was born and raised in the Northeast and, Abbott says, takes a more "lyrical approach" to the region. He traveled to several states, exploring the legacy of Southern music traditions.

Photojournalist Kael Alford had already been documenting the American Indian enclaves of Iles de Jean Charles and Pointe-aux-Chenes in Louisiana. As the museum puts it:

"Alford has evocatively recorded the landscape and its native inhabitants who tenaciously persevere in their way of life on ancestral ground that is sinking into the Gulf of Mexico at an alarming rate. Severely damaged by gas and oil extraction and battered by storms, the marshlands are in a tenuous state."

Kael Alford
Walter Dardar Jr., with His Father's House after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, 2008

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
Edison Dardar's Shrimp with Bycatch, Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, 2010

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
House on Eroding Land, Leeville, Louisiana, 2007

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
Jacob Walker's Tattoo, Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, 2008

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
Kierstin Guidry with Hilton Chaisson's Boat, Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, 2010

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
Pastors above the Flood Line, Live Oak Baptist Church, Pointe-aux-Chenes, Louisiana, 2008

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
Stranded Indian Land with Oil Boom, after the British Petroleum Oil Spill,
South of Point-aux-Chenes, Louisiana, 2010

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
The Entrance to Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, 2009

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
Twins, Point-aux-Chenes, Louisiana, 2010

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
View from (the Late) Virgil Dardar's Porch, Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, 2008

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
Wall inside Jake Billiot's Front Door, Point-aux-Chenes, Louisiana, 2010

Kael Alford/High Museum of Art
And Martin Parr, on the other end of the stylistic spectrum, is a renowned British documentary photographer known for garish color and exaggerated perspective. His website says as much.

"The three that were selected for this round are special because they are so different from each other," says Abbott.

Martin Parr
The Georgia National Fair, 2010

Martin Parr/Magnum/Courtesy of The High Museum
Harold's BBQ restaurant, 2011

Martin Parr/Magnum/Courtesy of The High Museum
A pawn shop, 2010

Martin Parr/Magnum/Courtesy of The High Museum
Staff at The Silver Skillet restaurant, 2011

Martin Parr/Magnum/Courtesy of The High Museum

Indeed, a corn dog glistening with ketchup couldn't be more different from an eroding coastline. But maybe there's something there, some inexplicable Southern magic — that ties them together. Or maybe it's just geography.

How would you picture the South?