SLOWEXPOSURES 2015 JURIED EXHIBITION :THE FINAL ESPISOD

In The End It Is All Personal

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SLOWEXPOSURES 2015

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Jerry Atnip and I stater with almost 900 jpegs of photographs,taken in the south by photographers from as far away as 
California and Massachusetts and all the southern states.Seventy were chosen a catalog was printed and hung.pictures received and hung.For four days the people of Pike County Georgia shared that hospitality with each other and people from around the country.I want to believe fun was had by all maybe a little enlightenment  I know there is no single image,no simple phrase that can truly describe the rural south,like there is no facile way to describe me. it is a feeling.

These four images gave me an emotional rush that maybe in easy in some ways to see why and in other not.Take a little time and look, I am in each one.

Old Soldiers Reunion Parade, Newton North Carolina   Aaron Canip,  Durham NC

Thirsty    William Bishop, Molena GA

Diner   Sean Dunn, Athens GA

Knights of Columbus Oyster Roast   Preston Gannaway, Oakland CA

                                       

" After All Tomorrow Is Another Day "

THE LAND : THE PLACE

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SLOWEXPOSURES 2015

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When I think of the South I am remind of an album by Brian Eno, Another Green World.I close my eyes and imagine lush vegetation every where the mind's eye can see,bright,green,humid, almost tropical. That is only one reality,there are others. The south is still bring exploited for it cheap land and labor so the new south I think can be seen in images like  Pickwick Landing, Downstream and Destrehan Louisana, testaments to a changing rural landscape.

Maybe nature will take back and heal the scars we create to quote the enduring Scarlett O'Hara,"After all tomorrow is another day."

Cotton Georgia    Timothy Hyde, Alexandria VA

Cotten Patch    Joe Hoyle, Lilburn GA

Pickwick Landing Downstream    Micah Cash, Charolotte NC

Destrahan Alabam    Mark Indig, Valley Village CA

Before The Rain    Leland McElveen, Chapin SC

Greenhouse # 2     Andrew Feiler, Atlanta GA

                  

WE ARE ALL AMERICANS

What Is A Southern ?

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SLOWEXPOSURES 2015

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In many ways I can be a southern cliche , I am a romantic who looks back ,I spend way too much time dreaming and thinking, There is always tomorrow and yet I am sort of a lone who can get things done.The most contradictory thing about me is the illusion that I like to socialize with other people and great in gathering funny thing I am in places because of need and my social skills are based on protest and fear.I have been called the b word (was not great when we could speak without using code) because it seems I only complain.

Where is this leading ? Well one of the best reasons I like photography is that it allows me to be a languid voyeur. I/you can look at people for as long as you want without confrontation are being thought a creep,I /you can decide over time is this is someone to know or avoid.A photograph gives you time to change your mind as you linger and pour over every pore,the mind can say what is your story, why was the moment with you worth saving for me to see ?

I/you can fall in love,hate,try to understand or be dismissive but the photograph has given you time.

I think being a Southern is really about how you feel time more than place.

Young Patriot   Todd Suttles, Atlanta GA

Serafina    Jenny Stratton Durham NC

Boy with Dog   Jerry Siegel, Atlanta GA

First Gun   Rick Smith, Nashville TN

Paent Dallas County Alabama   Jerry Siegel Atlanta  GA

Nancy on Thanksgiving Day   Tara Saunder, Columbus GAs

Twins   Betty Press, Hattiesburg MS

Two Brothers   Laura Kresmin, Tucker GA

                                               

SLOWEXPOSURES 2015 LOOKING AT 2 PICTURES

Symmetry and Parallel Lines

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SLOWEXPOSURES 2015

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Russell Grace  Fernery of Seville

Lisa Johnston   Going Home

Rob Amberg  Driving Lesson with My Daughter

Mike Baker   Fast Train Running

Betty Press    Cake Walk,Black Hawk MS

Nick Dantona   Clarksdale Greyhound Station

This year Jerry and I tried to reflect the chestnuts of "southern photography themes" so there are landscapes and people, signage cotton fields and even an Elvis or two but for me one of the most pleasing effect after the show was hung was the rhythm and symmetry of the choices so evident but then I ask you to look and see for your self.

HOME

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SLOWEXPOSURES 2015

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First Peach  Tamara Reynolds

Peeling Peaches  Dale Niles

The south is a state of mind more than a place,so my longing for home is not real to me anymore.Any number of things from sweet smells,food.light and sound can create  torrents of mixed emotions that other would drown in but logic or stubbornness always save me.Last evening while reading The Hunger Games (some of it is set in the south) there is a description of Katniss Everdeen sucking honeysuckle flowers for sweetness and sustenance,all a sudden i was right there with her.

Every summer send me into a frenzy to search for the perfect peach,the crispest red watermelon the most intense blackberries and velvety figs.These things remind me of a time and place so does these two images.

When Jerry Atnip and I looked over the exhibition for the first time in Concord Georgia we became aware of a symmetry to the photographs that could not be denied

The first image you see is, First Peach and the last image Peeling Peaches.They hang across from each other.To say more than look at them would burden these pictures with needless explanation.You know the moment.

Disruptive Technology

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SLOWEXPOSURES 2015

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Jake Deese    Cody, Kimmy, David, and Stormy.Looking closely at details

Henry Jacobs    River Boys

After the exhibition was installed we began to notice that certain images created dialogues 

once you begin to spend time with them and look into the photograph's space and try to

find details about what is going on.Today Eye Caramba wrote on a Facebook post" Disruptive technology "

I love the pairing of these two words When I spoke about these two images I said I felt the photographer had 

intruded into a golden moments of youthful summers. 

Can we remember them without a snapshot.

Jake Deese's quartet of teenagers resting after river rafting are interesting because they are giving as much

as they are getting. Each one has an attitude from indifferent to agitated to cool disdain.Everything from posture to clothing

(what little) and facial mask add to our memories of being a teenager.The look of I am bothered but I am too cool to be.

Henry Jacobs' River Boys is gentle in its composition and the amount of space,light , river and sky each boy is given.

There is an airy idyllic sense to the day,just boys fishing.A timeless story I think I should let the artist speak here
" Chattahoochee river boys | The water moved steadily over and down the fifteen foot high dam, these young teenage boys out on the top ledge with their fishing poles like those before them have done for generations. I happened to be out on the river for @crkeeper when I passed by the scene early one summer morning. Fast forward to this weekend, and I had the opportunity to show it in good company with other photographers whose work was selected for Slow Exposures, a show that celebrates the rural south. Proud of that, and eager now to continue working on the river and sharing moments like this." like I said just boys fishing in the golden glow of youth and summer.

10 Years Later : Still Full of Surprises

SLOWEXPOSURES 2015
SNOW STORM
Preston Gannaway

Snow storm,, from the series Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Norfolk VA,    Preston Gannaway Okland CA

Just got back from the Southland.This year Jerry Atnip and I were ask to be jurors for the 13th annual Slowexposures competition. I had previously juried this event in 2005 with Celina Lunsford. At that time we created a little stir by choosing Wrapped Turkeys by Andy Scott of Atlanta for the first prize . Sometimes things change and sometimes they don't

Ten years doesn't seem like a long time anymore.Many changes have taken place not just the war between analog and digital but also the way we view pictures,what do they meanI think in this era while we are bombarded by images and on overload,we still want to be able to feel a connection.

Jerry and I decided not only to jury but curate an exhibition that reflected something about the south.Trying to avoid cliches and yet holding on to the idea of what is the South. Picture of old barns, rusted trucks, coca cola signs even kudzu, magnolia and cotton can be photograph in many places.Exotic locals can be found anywhere as well as the downtrodden and cute kids.

Jerry has just did an interview with Sally Mann and that old question was asked what/where is the South ? Like many a feel it more than see it. It is a Neverland that exist to varying degrees in our hearts and no two descriptions will ever be the same.Because each is based on the histories and memories we can remember but never fully describe.We know it, it is formed in our childhood , always stays beyond our grasp our real reality.

Which brings me to our winner this year, Snow Storm by Preston Gannaway when announced people look at us in disbelief. Even as they congratulated us on a solid selection of photographs how could this one win? To be honest the image was beautifully print and presented, In this image a complete world was shown,like a dream, it had a mood of quiet wistfulness.A moment we could all recognize that first snow.

I got my first Brownie camera,took a picture of a solumn little snowman and that was it. Funny ting when the exhibition came down a number of people came up to us to say they had snow pictures in their family albums 

Snow has always been a mystery and an occasion to celebrate in the deep South but this time it was a hot September day.

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