Monday's Talk

We had a very informative talk on Monday by Kendall Adams. He discussed Welty's photographic style and subject matter. Kendall pointed out that Welty's shots seemed natural, and her method was not marked by traditional rules of composition, making her style different from the styles of some of her contemporaries. She met these people of 1930s Mississippi on their--and her--home turf, conversed with them, and then, when they were at ease with her presence, took their photographs, or, as she often called them, snapshots.

Here are Welty's own words in describing the experience of traveling her home state during the Great Depression:

"By recording what passes, the photographer offers the illusion of not letting it go. These pictures represent such efforts. They are among hundreds made by me in the late 1930s and early '40s in the State of Mississippi. If a value persists in them, it is because life, whatever it meant, had to mean, in those poor times, speaks for itself in the unchanging language of movement and gesture, and looks undefeatedly back at the camera's eye."

"Life ... speaks for itself ...." Eudora usually says it best!