Doing Good in the Alabama Black Belt -- Summer 2015

I'm grateful to Alan Rothschild of the Do Good Fund of Columbus, GA, for news that the Fund has brought three major photography exhibitions, including over 80 photographs by 40 Southern photographers, to the towns of Marion and Greensboro, Alabama.

This region of the South is especially well-known in the world of photography because of the photography of Walker Evans and William Christenberry.

The Fund is making this possible through collaboration with the University of Alabama’s Honor College, the Smith Building Art Gallery, and the Greensboro, AL-based Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization (“HERO”). 

This work is appearing in three interrelated shows, all of which opened on May 15th and will be up through July 31st, 2015.

One of these, entitled Eternal Moments: Photographs of the South, is up at the Smith Building Art Gallery, in Marion, Alabama.

The other two are in Greensboro, Alabama, 25 miles to the west of Marion.

The Greensboro shows include Gordon Parks: The Segregation Portfolio (see image above) on view at 1116 Main St., and A Changing Nature:  Photography of the South, 1963-2014, on view at 1118 Main St., in Greensboro, Alabama. 

For full information about hours for viewing and other necessary details, go here to the Do Good website. 

In addition to the three shows, The Do Good Fund also plans a photographers' gathering in the Black Belt, scheduled for the weekend of June 26-28.

These shows bring together a remarkably deep and rich collection of Southern photography, including two images made in Hale County, Alabama, by William Christenberry.

Other individual highlights of these shows include the complete 12 image Gordon Parks Segregation Series portfolio, an image from New Orleans photographer Keith Calhoun's Angola Prison series (currently featured at the Venice Biennale), and work by the newest Guggenheim Fellow photographer, Susan Lipper.  

In addition to Gordon Parks, here's a complete list of photographers -- a veritable who's who of Southern photography -- selected by curators Chip Cooper and Kenzie McNeilly for inclusion in Do Good’s summer Black Belt shows:

Shelby Lee Adams, Dave Anderson, Rachel Boillot, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Keith Calhoun, Aaron Canipe, Keith Carter, Orien Catledge, William Christenberry, Maude Schuyler Clay, and Dennis Darling.

Also, Eliot Dudik, Joshua Dudley Greer, William Greiner, Cynthia Henebry,  Lauren Henkin, Birney Imes, Jane Robbins Kerr, Kevin Kline, Baldwin Lee, Susan Lipper, Sophie Lvoff (see image above), and Richard McCabe. 

Also, John Menapace, Charles Moore, Don Norris, Walker Pickering, Tamara Reynolds, Whitten Sabatini, Jerry Siegel, Mike Smith, Magdalena Sole, Rosalind Fox Solomon, Mark Steinmetz, Rylan Steele,Marilyn Suriani, Brandon Thibodeaux, and Susan Worsham.

Congratulations to the folks at the Do Good Fund, and to all their collaborators, and to all these photographers, for this exceptionally visionary and transformative undertaking.

Please, folks, keep me posted as to how this project works out for the good citizens of Alabama.