Southern Photography at the Ogden Museum

New Orleans' Ogden Museum of Southern Art can always be counted on for exceptionally fine exhibitions of Southern photography.

This weekend, for example, the folks at the Ogden are closing their current show, Part II of a pair of shows under the title A Place and Time, up since February 2nd, 2017. Both these shows have sought to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the Ogden's permanent collection of photography.

Part I of this two-part show was up at the Ogden in the spring of 2016. It included photographs from the Civil War, Reconstruction, and early 20th century, with a special emphasis on photographs of New Orleans and on Depression-era documentary work by Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers. 

This second show picks up the story in 1946 and explores, in the Ogden's words, "the trajectory of Southern photography" as it documents "the changing post-World War II American South" to the present day. 

Opening next at the Ogden are two shows about color photography in the American South.

The first is an exhibition of images by William Eggleston (see image above) from his Troubled Waters portfolio, from the late 1970's, made in the aftermath of his landmark exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

This body of Eggleston's work is mostly about what the Odgen describes as "rural and roadside life in and around the Mississippi Delta, Memphis, and points between."

The Ogden's second show is entitled The Colourful South, and features work by five pioneers in color photography -- William Christenberry, Birney Imes (see image above), William Greiner, William Ferris, and Alec Soth.

According to the folks at the Ogden, "this exhibition explores the role color photography has played in the history of Southern photography," traces "the influence of each photographer upon one another, and situates their work in a larger narrative of photography in the South after William Eggleston."

Both of these shows open on June 10th, and are up at the Ogden through October 10th, 2017. 

So, much fine Southern photography to see at the Odgen, in New Orleans. 

We owe the folks at the Ogden many thanks for their devotion to Southern photography.