Maude Clay Proclaimed Visual Artist of the Year in Mississippi

Congratulations to Maude Schuyler Clay, Sumner, Mississippi-based photographer, who has been named recipient of the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts for the State of Mississippi for 2014.

Clay's citation from the Mississippi Arts Commission reads,

"Maude Schuyler Clay was born in Greenwood, Mississippi.  A self-described lifer of Tallahatchie County (six generations), she attended the University of Mississippi and Memphis Academy of the Arts.  

"She began her career assisting her cousin, the celebrated photographer, William Eggleston.  

"While living in New Your City, Clay worked with the LIGHT Gallery and later as a photography editor and photographer for Esquire, Fortune, Vanity Fair and a number of other publications.  

 

"Over several decades, she has made her native Mississippi the prime focus of her work, and her vision of this land, particularly the storied Delta, is the image many conjure when they think of Mississippi.

"In 1993, she turned her focus to a series of black and white photographs, that for her captured the complexities of the Delta landscape.  For this work, she preferred to “take photographs in the natural low light of early morning or late afternoon.” 

"The resulting culmination of her black and white series, the book Delta Land, was published in 1999 and earned her a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for photography in 2000.

"Her current collection is Delta Dogs, inspired by her love for dogs and their unique place in the landscape of the Delta."

Congratulations to Clay for this well-deserved recognition of her achievement as an artist and for her contribution to the cultural life of Mississippi.