Lewis Hine and Henri Cartier-Bresson Photograph in the South

While we are in a historic photography moment, perhaps its good to note that two photography exhibits in the South present work by major figures in the history of photography who spent at least part of their careers photographing in the American South.

The NC Museum of History in Raleigh opens this week a major exhibit of the photographs of Lewis Hine documenting child labor in North Carolina. The show opens March 4th, 2011, and is called  The Photography of Lewis Hine: Exposing Child Labor in North Carolina, 1908–1918. 

More on the show here.

There will be a formal opening reception for this show on Friday, March 11th, from 6-9 pm in the Museum, which is located at 5 East Edenton Street, in downtown Raleigh.

The photographs in this exhibit were made while Hine was working as a staff photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. The photographs document the plight of child workers in the state’s textile mills a century ago.

Also, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta is hosting a major exhibit of photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson, up now through May 29th, 2011. This show is being billed as "the first comprehensive retrospective of the French photographer's work since his death in 2004." It was up first at MoMA in NYC, and you can see many of the images in the show, including work made by Cartier-Bresson on his journeys through the American South by going to their website here.

Especially go here, where we can see images Cartier-Bresson made in the American South. The photograph of members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (better known as the UDC when I was growing up) is priceless, while the photograph of folks living in a tent city is heartbreaking.