Artist’s reception scheduled 1-3 p.m. July 19
OXFORD,
Miss. – Mississippi photographer Maude Schuyler Clay has photographed
the Delta region for more than two decades. She has taken a new spin on
her old favorites, now photographing dogs in the area.
Clay’s
Delta photographs and other recent work are on display at the
University of Mississippi’s Barnard Observatory through Aug. 14.
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and hosted in
the Gammill Gallery, the exhibit features an artist’s reception 1-3
p.m. Sunday (July 19). The event coincides with opening day of UM’s
36th annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, focusing on Faulkner
and mystery.
A native of Sumner, Clay began photographing there
in the late 1970s. The work collected in her book “Delta Land:
Photographs” (University Press of Mississippi, 1999) spanned the years
1993-98 and showcased the beauty of the landscape. Her “Delta Dogs”
series was a natural outcropping of those photos.
“I had noticed
more and more the indigenous canine presence in the landscape, and it
seemed almost like these dogs were finding me instead of the other way
around,” Clay said. “The animals give each picture scale, making it all
the more evident where Earth meets sky in the vast alluvial plain, as
the Delta is sometimes called.
“Culled from about 300 pictures, this group represents one more installment of my continuing Delta landscape series. I have also been working on a color landscape project.”
In her Big Black River/Genesis series, Clay was commissioned by Jay Weiner to photograph the land in Madison County that has been in his family for six generations.
“This is the first installment of a four-season project,” Clay said. “We have since done two other seasons and one more will follow in 2010. It is wild and uncultivated property near Flora on the Big Black River, and it looks quite different in each season.”
Clay’s photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, New York Times Magazine, Observer Magazine, Mothers and Daughters, Women Photographers and other publications. She has served as photo editor for the Oxford American magazine. She also published the book “Her Circle” in 2003, which features low-light color photography of family, friends and familiar surroundings.
For more information on the Center for Southern Culture, visit https://web20.olemiss.edu/news/wordpress/depts/south .