Those fellas at Art Relish have been picking up the slack in coverage at the High Museum. I’m curious to see Alec Soth’s entry to Picturing the South, an ongoing program of regionally-inspired photography commissioned by the museum. Soth’s title, Black Line of Woods, is a quotation by Flannery O’Connor; his images are intended to capture something essential about the South. And for that reason, I appreciate Jason Parker’s question: Does it matter that the photographer was born in the North?
Art Relish recently shot another video on Richard Misrach’s exhibit, On the Beach, which shows concurrently with Monet’s Water Lilies. Both Monet and Misrach close this Sunday, August 23. Check the High’s website for more info.
Hell’s only a kitchen if you live in New York. In East Durham, N.C., it’s in your backyard. Or at least, that’s the implication behind the title of Titus Brooks Heagins’ Durham Stories: Not Hell But You Can See It From Here. The exhibition, which opened this weekend at Composition Gallery in Candler Park, continues Friday during normal gallery hours.
In videos and color photography compiled over the course of two years, Heagins attempts to capture the spirit of East Durham, “an area largely unaffected by the insurgence of money” and “rising social status” of a city otherwise known for institutions such as the prestigious (and wealthy) Duke University.
From Composition Gallery:
These photos show what inner-city America looks like right now, and help to break down the stereotypical image of neighborhoods such as this. They show the bond between races and depict the mixture of ethnicities that live, work, and take pride in the place they call home. Though he is a Durham resident, Heagins also travels to far-off locations for his work, which focuses mainly on photographing people of color from all around the world.
Recent exhibitions at Composition have explored heavy, ethical themes worthy of National Geographic, including the Vietnam War and the African AIDS pandemic. Although Heagens’ Durham Story continues in a similarly documentarian vein, the show — with its kudzu-draped tableau of bare feet and exposed torsos — should also appeal to the Southern literature crowd (insert Dorothy Allison allusion here). Seasoned Atlanta photography fans, on the other hand, might enjoy comparing Durham Story with Men of Georgia by Carl Martin, a series loosely related to Martin’s exhibition at Opal Gallery last year.
