Mallory's Portfolio

Mallory Morgan
Artist Emulation Report
William Christenberry

William Christenberry has moved in and out of the southern photography genre all his life. Born in 1936 and in Hale County, Alabama. He grew up around tiny wooden Baptist churches, roadhouse shacks, poor farmers — all icons of the distressed, rural South. Christenberry was an unusual and valuable artist. Even though he moved to Washington in 1968, he has returned again and again to Alabama and produced a unique and personal record of Southern landscapes in photographs, drawings, paintings and sculptures. His best-known works are his small color photographs (some no more than three inches) of a single building, and often an abandoned or boarded-up house in a wooded setting. Christenberry created many famous photographs during the 60’s and 70’s. He takes alot of photos of fading road signs and crooked hand-lettered messages, isolated buildings. He presents many of these structures as though they were undiscovered, useless pieces of sculpture; with doors and windows shut, uninviting, even a little scary. Humans rarely appear in Christenberry’s work; he prefers emotional neutrality. He has made quite a few drawings and dolls since 1962 based on the Ku Klux Klan, when he used a hidden camera to photograph KKK rallies in Memphis. He is an old-fashioned artist who takes pays a lot of attention to detail and spends a lot of time with whatever he makes. His work is looked at as "an evolution in response both to the most advanced art movements of the times and to the changing social and cultural landscape around him." He captures both the beauty, as well as the decay and failings of the South. Christenberry is a very important southern photographer because he displays the imperfections of the south in a beautiful way. I chose this artist because I think his work is very beautiful and meaningful, and I really like it. I am planning on going to Alabaster and Helena, Alabama to emulate Christenberry and take photos of desolate, rural areas.