Photography Festivals in the American South, Mid-Fall 2015

 

The days are getting shorter , the weather is getting cooler, and across the South we are gearing up for the second round of fall photography festivals.

FotoWeekDC is only a few weeks away, now, running from November 7th-15th, 2015 in Our Nation's Capitol, and you can find the full schedule of events on their website, here.

December brings us PhotoNOLA, this year running from December 10th-13th, 2015. The full calendar of events is here.

For those who really plan ahead, its never too early to start. 

So its good to know that spring of 2016 is time again for the biennial FotoFest in Houston, on from March 12th - April 24th, 2016.

More here on FotoFest 2016.

William Eggleston and Ernest C Withers at the Brooks Museum

Distinguished Memphis photographers William Eggleston (see image above) and the late Ernest C Withers (see image below) are being honored by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art by the establishment of a permanent gallery dedicated to the exhibition of their work.

Eggleston is of course best known for helping transform the practice of fine art photography through his use of color film in his work. 

Withers worked primarily as a documentary photographer and photojournalist, producing many of the iconic images of the Civil Rights movement as well as of the popular music scene in the early 1950's and 1960's.

Both these sons of Memphis are worthy of the recognition the Brooks Museum is providing them woith permanent exhibitions of their work.

For more on this development, from the local Memphis press, go here.

On Being Black at the Arnika Dawkins Gallery

There is an important show up now at the Arnika Dawkins Gallery in Atlanta, through January 22, 2016. 

Entitled On Being Black, this show features work by 23 nationally renowned, mid-career and emerging fine art photographers. 

The work in this show, which, as the folks at the Dawkins Gallery describe it, "explores issues of race, colorism and racial identity," reminds us that the person who makes the image controls the image, and that the most widely-known Southern photographers are white. 

All the more reason, therefore, to welcome and celebrate a show that emphasizes work by African-American photographers seeking "to continue the conversation about race" while also attempting to "make sense of the daily news." 

Photographers in the show explore how they identify themselves in relationship to questions of who gets to define race, and how its done, as well as "what it means to be black in the new millennium."

 

Photographers in the show include Jared Soares (image at the top of this post),  Delphine Fawundu (image second from the top), Janna Ireland (image third from the top). 

You can learn more about this show from Aline Smithson, who has reviewed it on  Lenscratch, here.

Do Good Fund at Cassilhaus for Click!

People who live in North Carolina's Research Triangle region and who are interested in Southern photography need to make plans to see Tracing the American South, a show of work from the Do Good Fund's collection of Southern photography now up at Cassilhaus, north of Chapel Hill, through November. 

Curated by Duke's Tom Rankin and Southern photographer Rachel Boillot (see Rachel in the image above, contemplating her handiwork), Tracing the American South brings together 42 images from the Do Good Fund's collection plus a number of complementary images from the collection of Ellen Cassilly and Frank Konhaus, owners of Cassilhaus. 

This show is but one of the many events in October in the Triangle that are part of Click! Triangle Photography Festival.  

You can read more about the genesis and development of Click! here, on the Indy blog. 

The images in this show are a truly outstanding selection of work made in the American South since 1954. The Do Good Fund has assembled an exceptionally strong collection of work, from which Tom and Rachel have chosen images that work together exceptionally well. 

They have chosen work that is perfect for the gallery space at Cassilhaus, both in scale and in number.

When I say plan to see this show, I mean plan -- because the gallery space for this show is part of the private home of Frank and Ellen. 

They look forward to welcoming you, but need you to contact them  in advance to make an appointment. 

Contact them by email at fkonhaus@kontek.com or by phone at (919) 403-6301.

 

One of the really nice things for me about getting over to Cassilhaus for the opening was the chance to meet photographers I write about on this blog, but had not met previously, including Lori Vrba, Susan Worsham, Eliot Dudik (all pictured above, reading left to right), Aaron Canipe, and Rachel Boillot.   

For more information on this show, or on how to contact Frank or Ellen to visit Cassilhaus, check out the Cassilhaus website or the Events Calendar at CLICK! Triangle Photography Festival's site. 

Did I say this is a show that really can't  be missed?

OK, I'll say it again -- this show is VERY much worth you effort to get there.
 

More News of Southern Photographers -- Fall 2015

More items from the ongoing stream of news about Southern photographers!

1. Conway, Arkansas-based photographer Donna Pinckley (see image above) has images of interracial couples from her Sticks and Stones portfolio featured on the SLATE online magazine, here and aCurator, here.

2. Mr John Bennette, along with Jerry Atnip, juried this year's SlowExposures main show of work.  Mr Bennette has recently had a series of entries on his blog hanging with mrbennette, in which he reflects on this year's show, well worth reading here.

3. Honorary Southern Photographer Beatrice Chauvin (based in Paris) is now in the Mississippi Delta, where her show of work from her UNBROKEN portfolio is now up at the BB King Museum, through October 18th, 2015. 

4. Photographs from the collection of the Do Good Fund will be on exhibit for CLICK! The Triangle Photography Festival, at Cassilhaus in Chapel Hill, NC, with an opening reception on Sunday October 11th from 3-6. 

5. Distinguished North Carolina photographer Caroline Vaughan (see image above) will open a major retrospective show of her work, including images from 1966 to the present, at the Craven Allen Gallery at 1106 1/2 Broad Street in Durham, NC, now up through November 7th, 2015.

6. Distinguished North Carolina photographer Titus Brooks Heagins has a show of his work now up at Greensboro College in Greensboro, NC, as part of Art + Dialogue: Responding to Racial Tensions In America, a series of exhibitions and conversations that seeks to address persistent issues of race in America. For more on this series of events, go here and here. 

7. And, finally, for now, Andrew Feiler's  photographs of Morris Brown College, which we mentioned in our last news blog, are featured this week in Jeff Rich's Eyes on the South, go here.