During this week celebrating the Fourth of July in the South, it seems appropriate the American art of William Christenberry is being showcased in exhibitions and in The New York Times.
Philip Gefter's article: "Southern Exposures: Past and Present Through the Lens of William Christenberry."
From the article:
"They were like perfect little poems," Walker Evans said about the three-inch-square pictures of the American South that William Christenberry took with his amateur Brownie camera.
The Brownie was never intended for exacting documentation or creative expression; it was the camera used for snapshots of family gatherings and vacations in the 1940's and 50's. What a crafty little camera, then, for Mr. Christenberry's persistent chronicle of the regional architecture and artifacts in his native Hale County, Ala. His little snapshots managed to capture the local dialect of his hometown in visual terms.
You can check out the exhibition - Passing Time: The Art of William Christenberry - at the Smithsonian American Art Museum by clicking here.
