Susan Raab in Mississippi

Washington, DC based photographer Susan Raab has some strong work on her website made in Mississippi, including a portfolio about William Faulkner's house Roan Oak and another one documenting life at the Oxford, MS Sonic Drive-in.

Mark Steinmetz Photographs the South

Athens, Georgia-based photographer Mark Steinmetz has just published Greater Atlanta (2009), a companion volume to two other books of photographs of the South, South East (2008) and South Central (2007) by Steinmetz.

In this work, Steinmetz continues in the grand tradition of B+W fine art photography, emphasizing street photography and natural-light portraits. The images in South Central were chiefly made in and around Knoxville, Tennessee; those in South East were made in Athens and the Atlanta area. The work in Greater Atlanta was made in, well, of course, greater Atlanta.

The images in these books involve the South in transition from rural to urban and from old to new, exploring the tensions, distractions, and dislocations that are part of that experience. For comments by Mark on this body of work, see the interview he did with Joerg Colberg of the Conscientious blog, HERE. My thanks, as always, to Joerg for his fine work.

Sarah Wilson at PhotoNOLA 2009

Sarah Wilson,  a Louisiana photographer now based in Austin, Texas, was the winner of the 2008 PhotoNOLA Review Prize for her portfolio, “Blind Prom,” images of the prom at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Her work is featured at this year's PhotoNOLA, on display at the New Orleans Photo Alliance, 1111 St. Mary Street, in New Orleans, from Nov 27th, 2009 – January 20th, 2010.

Luceo Images

Luceo Images is a collective of 6 photographers, all but two of whom are based in the South. They include David Banks and Kendrick Brinson, based in Atlanta; Matt Eich, based in Norfolk; and Tim Lytvinenko, based in Raleigh. Strong work here -- well worth checking out.

Resources Update

Arts Critic Atlanta is a very useful blog, focusing on the arts scene in Atlanta, with a special Visual Arts section that -- being in Atlanta -- has a lot of information about photography. There are, for example, a number of stories and reviews here about events that were part of 2009's Atlanta Celebrates Photography.They include the above image by Jeff Rich up at Agnes Scott College.

I found this blog through the Arts Journal blog, which has a list of regional and big-city arts blogs, much worth exploring. One of the things worth noting, however, is that there are only three blogs listed for the entire southeastern USA, one the above blog from Atlanta, one for the Nasher Museum at Duke, and one based in Miami.

These are all fine, but what's missing is a fine resource for the arts in the southeast. There are more blogs for the arts scene in the city of Denver than for the whole region from Maryland to the Mississippi.

Someone needs to take up this project.