Tuesday, February 06, 2007

J.C. Coovert, Photographer Of The Cotton South

Our friend Linda Bassie of Cleveland, Miss., sent along a link to a striking web site that presents the work of J.C. Coovert, a photographer who documented the Midsouth and its cotton industry during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Coovert, born in Kentucky, lived and worked in Greenville and Yazoo City, Miss., for a time, then established a studio in Memphis where he became a prominent photographer whose work was published throughout North America and Europe.

Click here to go to the site.

His images capture a wide range of subjects and events, from daily plantation life to floods and overflows along the Mississippi River.

The site is maintained by D. Gordon and Jane Adams, who live in Carbondale, Ill. Adams is an anthropology professor at Southern Illinois University. Gordon, her husband, is a photographer who has collaborated with her on a number of research projects.

Gordon and Adams, who have lectured on Coovert's work, point on the web site that Coovert photographed people - including African-American laborers - with a quiet dignity. You probably have seen his images at some point in a history or text book.

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