A VERY CHRISTENBERRY CHRISTMAS

I’ve always been drawn to William Christenberry’s photographs- punchy color landscapes and architectural studies of rural Alabama that are full of the intangible qualities of decay and the passage of time and southerness and rural vernacular. His work feels like a collection of old photographs of home, well, because they are actually photographs of home- both his and mine.

Though he was raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Christenberry spent his summers with extended family in rural Hale County – neither of which are too far west of Birmingham. After graduating from the University of Alabama as a painter, he moved to New York. It was in New York that he came across the 1941 book and cornerstone of documentary photography, LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN. In it, author James Agee describes the experience of living among the dirt-poor farming families of Hale County during the Great Depression. The stories are accompanied by photographs by WALKER EVANS, the godfather of fine art documentary photography.

Shortly after beginning a professorship at Corcoran College, Christenberry began making annual visits to Hale County to visit family and to explore and make photographs. On one occasion in 1973, Walker Evans, who had encouraged Christenberry to take his photographs seriously, accompanied him. This was Evans’ first and only return to Hale County since 1936.

While at home for Christmas this year I had the idea to make a photographic pilgrimage of my own to Hale County. Between the poverty, rural beauty, decay, influence of Christenberry and ghost of Walker looming I thought that the photographs would make themselves and it’d be just oh so easy and fun. Not really the case. And departing from Bham at 3pm for the drive didnt help me out any, either. But the whole thing made for a nice afternoon anyway. Below are a few pictures made during the hour I spent in Greensboro, the county seat, and along the road there and back.

For more on Christenberry, check out this great story from NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO