53 Color Photographs from the Deep South 1972-1986
Mbirafon Books
ISBN 9788897917007
Release date: January 2025
Format: Paperback
Size: 17x21 cm
Number of pages: 64
Limited Edition
Number of copies: 30
This book is a collection of 53 color photographs taken during fieldwork in West Tennessee and Mississippi in 1972 and 1978. One of the photographs is from 1986. The portfolio, limited to 30 signed and numbered copies, is divided into two sections: the first encompasses architectural images and details, while the second features portraits of blues singers and other figures from the African American community. Blues singers include such notable artists as Jack Owens, Jacob Stuckey, Sleepy John A. Estes, Charlie Sangster, Memphis Piano Red (John Williams), Sonny Boy Nelson (Eugene Powell), Mrs Van Zula Hunt and Hammie Nixon. The majority of the photographs focus on Brownsville, Tennessee, the hometown of Sleepy John A. Estes, Charlie Pickett, Son Bonds and several other historical figures in black music. The photographs were taken with Pentax 35mm cameras equipped with 55mm and 35mm lenses, and the film used was Kodachrome. Rather than reducing the images, it was decided to display them with their natural borders and they have been laid out without any cropping. (...)
— Giambattista Marcucci (2025)