Commonplace: A Landmark Exhibition of Southern Photographers

WORDS Caroline Taylor

Commonplace brings together the work of four Southern photographers who represent a major turning point in contemporary photography – the use of color. William Christenberry, William Eggleston, William Greiner and Birney Imes each photograph common images, or their own surroundings. However, the images conquer the limitations of their subject and speak to a narrative of mystery, and a new sensuality through color. The photographs hold a tension of a disconcerting life of their own that may point to the verge of disaster, or perhaps a tremendous feat or glory. 

After becoming immediate friends in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1962, William Eggleston came across William Christenberry’s reference photographs taken with his Kodak Brownie camera. Eggleston was at the time shooting in black and white, but by the mid 1960’s had taken to color photography “snapshots.” The inherent imperfections and notions of chance came as an intoxicating change to the rigid and composed photographs of the reigning art photography of the time. Color pouring across his subjects grants a sympathy that stages a narrative – most notably the landscape of the American Dream. Eggleston became a noted pioneer of color photography as an art form, confirmed by his 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Both artists are celebrated as grandfathers of color photography. 

Eggleston and Christenberry became major influences on a younger generation of photographers. A turning point for then college student William Greiner was an introduction to Eggleston on a spring break trip to Memphis. Greiner’s photographs included in Commonplace serve as a view of pre-Katrina New Orleans. Regarding this series, Fallen Paradise, Greiner states “The photographs comprising this series were made in or around New Orleans, between 1995 and 2005. The patina which veiled New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina, but lifted by this event, revealed a paradise which had already fallen. These photographs are a testament to that notion.”

Speaking in a visual language consistent with Christenberry, Eggleston and Greiner, Birney Imes works are the result of nearly twenty years of exploration of his native Mississippi, photographing people and places that otherwise exist only in Southern memory. The works included in Commonplace are part of his Juke Joint series – photographs that capture the nearly forgotten (and disappearing) juke joints of the Mississippi Delta. In these ordinary scenes, Imes’ images are rich with vibrancy and culture, yet simultaneously surreptitious and often strange. 

Featuring these renowned photographers and their important work, Commonplace is a landmark collection of American cultural and artistic significance. The fact that this work is brought together and unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama makes it all the more uniques. 

Commonplace opens October 8  and runs through October 31, 2014 at Triumph & Disaster Gallery. For information, visit www.triumphdisastergallery.com or the gallery located at 505 Cloverdale Road, Unit 102 at The A&P in Old Cloverdale.

Alabama Native: William Christenberry

WORDS Caroline Taylor

Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1936, the life and career of William Christenberry traces not only the development of an influential artist but also a period of historical change and evolution. Raised in a strong Southern family with value placed on religion and work ethic, the Christenberrys struggled for a middle-class life. A young William grew up in Tuscaloosa, close to the campus of the University of Alabama - where he often watched the football team practice in the fields near his home. Summers were spent in Hale County, where his grandparents lived (the Christenberry side near Stewart, and his maternal side, the Smiths, near Akron).

1954 marked a year of change in the South, with Brown vs. Board of Education integrating the schools and Martin Luther King Jr. taking his post at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. On a national scale, plans for a new interstate system were unveiled. Urban sprawl followed with more powerful cars produced, affordable homes, and the rise of a suburban and shopping center culture. City centers and downtowns declined as populations spread into developing rural areas. 

In this same year, William Christenberry began his undergraduate studies in Studio Art at the University of Alabama. The early 1950s were marked by the Abstract Expressionist movement - a voice rampant in New York, and strong enough to reach throughout the nation. Artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko dominated – yet younger artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenberg and Cy Twombly were on the rise. Theories and practices of these artists were taught at the university level – giving students exposure to cutting edge theories and concepts. Christenberry was no exception, in 1955 beginning a practice of abstract painting. Pop Art would soon follow – a movement that embraced the signage and commercial elements in Christenberry’s later photographs. 

By 1958 the country was becoming prosperous: Explorer 1 launched the year before kicking off the Space Race, and television and evening news became part of family life. Christenberry began his graduate studies at the University of Alabama, and one teacher, Mel Price, a transplant from New York, became a strong influence. Price recommended Christenberry read James Agee and Walker Evans’ Let Us Now Praise Famous Men – a book that grew out of a 1936 assignment for Fortune magazine to capture the desolate state of sharecroppers and their families in the rural deep South. The book, originally published in 1941, would forever change Christenberry’s view on his native state - one passage in particular by Agee summarizes the essence of Christenberry’s work from this point forward:

“If I could do it, I’d do no writing at all here. It would be photographs; the rest would be fragments of cloth, bits of cotton, lumps of earth, records of speech, pieces of wood and iron, phials of odors, plates of food and excrement… A piece of the body torn out by the roots might be more to the point.””

— James Agee

In the same year Price introduced Christenberry to the artist Marcel Duchamp – whose practice of appropriation of the readymade is arguably the most influential development on artistic process. Also in this year, William turned to his childhood gift of a Kodak Brownie camera to capture the light and color of the Alabama he now saw as subject matter worthy of national attention (images he would appropriate as his artworks).

In 1961 William Christenberry moved to New York City for one year. Working multiple jobs to make ends meet, he faced a dry-spell in which he made no artwork. However, this period marked one of development as he became a student of the New York art world - frequenting museums and galleries (as well as West Village jazz clubs). He developed a friendship with Walker Evans, then the senior editor at Fortune, who told Christenberry on their first meeting “Young man, if you ever have any desire to do anything with this material that you possess in your head, I would hope that you would consult with me first.” The two remained close friends until Evans’ death in 1975. 

Christenberry moved to Memphis in 1962 for a position as a professor at Memphis State University. In Memphis he met William Eggleston – another Southern photographer marked by a discovery of Walker Evans’ work (Eggleston also was known to carry a copy of Cartier-Bresson’s The Decisive Moment). The two were instant friends and remained influential to each other throughout their careers. Eggleston’s 1976 solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, confirmed color “snapshot-like” photography as a respected art form.

In 1968 Christenberry moved to Washington, DC with his wife, and they would soon after have children. By the time of his move, he had developed a clear vision of his subject matter and strong understanding of its history. 

William Christenberry is the recipient of numerous awards including the Lyndhurst Foundation Prize (1982); a Guggenheim Fellowship (1984); the Alabama Prize (1989) and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa (1998). He is included in collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Baltimore Museum of Art. 

Commonplace opens October 8  and runs through October 31, 2014 at Triumph & Disaster Gallery. For information, visit www.triumphdisastergallery.com or the gallery located at 505 Cloverdale Road, Unit 102 at The A&P in Old Cloverdale.

Q&A with Photographer William Greiner

MADE Paper: When did you begin taking photographs, and what inspired you? 

William Greiner: At the age of twelve, I bought my first camera by mail order. It was a cheap 35mm model with no light meter. I would spend hours in front of my house photographing automobiles as they passed. The process was an experiment in exposing film in different ways and achieving different results. This experience hooked me on the magic of the medium.

I decided to attend college, this was 1979, so I went to a small liberal arts college north of Boston. While there, I befriended two kids from Memphis, TN. One of these kids one day shows up in my dorm room with a copy of William Eggleston’s Guide book. It turns out her dad was one of Bill’s benefactors, helping to fund his career. I looked at this book and although I could not completely grasp its complexity or originality, I realized photography had the potential to be very personal and it did not have to function as journalism or “news”.

On Spring break, we traveled to Memphis and I had a chance to spend time with Eggleston. This encounter was like a fork in the road and I pretty much abandoned photography as journalism. I know this is a long answer but it’s my answer! Photography for me now is an obsession, it is how I look at and react to the world.

MP: Do you have a favorite camera?

WG: No but I have mostly shot medium format film for big projects and 35mm for travel and small projects.

MP: You have shown alongside the other artists in Commonplace – what are a few of these exhibitions?

WG: The Morris Museum of Art held the exhibition ‘Local Color: Photography in the South’, between December 2011 and January 2012, which included work by Birney Imes, William Eggleston, William Christenberry and myself (and Dave Anderson). I also participated in the group exhibition, ‘Economy of Scale’, along side Christenberry at Hemphill Fine Arts in Washington, D.C., in 2009. William Eggleston and the Color Tradition, an exhibition exploring the art of American color photography over the last 30 years, was on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1999/2000 included my work as well. 

MP: What’s next?

WG: I am painting and collaging mostly now, appropriating road maps , painting over them. It is a completely new and different way of working and seeing, a more additive rather than subtractive process.

I have been visiting a few outdoor sculpture gardens, The New Orleans Museum of Art has a nice one, as does The Nasher in Dallas. I see all kinds of sculptural looking things and objects

In these places, but are not in fact sculpture. I am starting to photograph these objects in a way in which they could be interpreted as sculpture. I call it, “The Sculpture in My Garden”. I am questioning the notion of what is art? What has an esthetic beauty and what might be appropriate in a way which reveals hidden meaning or beauty.

William Greiner will attend the Opening Night Reception of Commonplace on Wednesday October 8th. Commonplace runs through October 31, 2014 at Triumph & Disaster Gallery. For information, visit www.triumphdisastergallery.com or the gallery located at 505 Cloverdale Road, Unit 102 at The A&P in Old Cloverdale.