Legendary Photographer Reveals A Hidden History

in 1962 two young photographers were in a cafeteria in Memphis chatting late into the night this was the start of a friendship that would have a radical impact on Modern color photography on seeing the little drugstore prints that were laid out before them by the other photographer a young Willie mangleston decided to finally start shooting in color of course Eggleston would go on to have a famous Fine Art career as a photographer known for his pioneering use of color but this is the story of the other photographer a quiet and assuming young man who had shown Eggleston his Prince that had captured the mundane beauty of a neglected American South that was slowly disappearing under an unrelenting sea of kudzu and time now as it has it you know every so often I am introduced to a work of a photographer whose image is instantly connect with me William christenberry is one of them he trained as a painter in the American South however it is photography of these long forgotten abandoned buildings in his native hail County Alabama which stand out to me both as historical records of a place that has vanished but also beautifully it's simple images of everyday mundane scenes that people at the time probably never gave a second thought to when they existed these are the photographs that launched christenberry's own career as a fine art photographer aside from being a dear friend to William Eggleston he was also close friends with both Walker Evans and Lee Freelander huge names in the photography world and yet despite being mentioned in the same breath as those photographers whose work is extremely widely known why is it until very recently I'd actually never heard of William Christenbury I wanted to know more about his photography and what I've discovered has made me absolutely fall in love with his photos which all started with these tiny little drugstore snapshots taken on a Kodak brownie with 127 film [Music] I have very strong mostly positive feelings about where I'm from and a deep affection for where I'm from but I see a kind of poetry or poignancy in these things that are disappearing the chance of the South is changing rapidly it's becoming a more affluent part of this country and it's but it's unfortunate it's beginning to look like almost everywhere else William christenberry spent his childhood in a place called hell County Alabama and now that's quite important to know and over the course of his life he took photographs that are both fascinating they're mundane in equal measures one of the standout things is people absolutely do not feature in his images at all the focus is purely on abandoned buildings signs and places as they change over time and are eventually lost to history at face value these photographs might just be interesting snapshots of abandoned and decaying buildings kind of a little bit like the Modern Trend for urbex you know when people go off and they just photograph places they're not supposed to be just to really document or just kind of you know make images that people go yeah that's pretty cool but there is more to Williams fine art photography than that it is not just a record of dilapidated buildings and what he ultimately did with the photographs has totally amazed me in the 1930s Walker Evans and James Ashby were in Hale County creating an article for 40 magazine that would ultimately be known as the book let us now praise famous men this was a document of the sharecroppers in the 1930s that Depression era imagery that's best associated with the farm Security Administration William Christenbury was extremely fond of this book in fact he mentions it a number of times and I wonder if he must have had the same feeling that I get when I look at the work by South African photographer called David Goldblatt in my case gold black photographed the very streets the places I used to drive around you know growing up and I would look at those photographs and think hey what what didn't I see there what what does gold black seen that I just kind of missed and it encouraged me to look a bit closer at my own surroundings and I'm sure that William Christenbury must have looked at this book of these images and recognized people places ideas and had probably had a similar epiphany I like to think that you know when he was looking through that book he had those ideas that kind of planted the seed in his mind that would ever be blossomed into his Fine Art career as a photographer but christenberry's career in final photography it would probably have been just a footnote to his original love of painting if it hadn't been for a meeting with that great Walker Evans in New York it is probably true I had the Good Fortune Betsy Braun mentioned this in the introduction to know the great photographer Walker Evans who encouraged me he was the first person to see the little brownie snapshot Walker Evans that stance and many of his pictures of severe frontality and etc etc I'm never denied I have no reason to deny Mr Evans great influence in so many ways but I'll never forget that night when he and his wife came down they had been so nice to me to invite me up to dinner Walker wanted to see the paintings because he loved painting he did painting himself and I had no absolutely no reservation about showing him the paintings I was flattered and I had those monster paintings rolled on on rug tubes you know that I brought all the way from Alabama on a second visit he said young man you mentioned you made color snapshots in reference to these paintings I'd like to see those I put him off I didn't want to show him those hey I was scared they were nothing but snapshots as I said process of the local drugstore but he was persistent and a little while he finished and he looked up and he said young man there's something about the way you use that little camera it's become a perfect extension of your eye and I suggest you take them seriously well coming from Walker Evans even then was pretty special but I got a hard head it didn't sink here it didn't sink in I wasn't interested in photography William Christenbury certainly does have an eye and I feel there is a distinct difference between the two Williams is reactive moving at PACE never sitting still one picture down to the next one whereas Christenbury he's more sedate he lets the essence of the place leech into the photographs he comes back again and again to the same spot documenting photographing that passage of time that's probably why I like his work so much it has an authenticness about it that authenticness makes me feel like this isn't just a dispassionate record of a building crumbling but in the fringes of this Photograph I can feel that clammy heat of the South the chirping cicadas in the background as William Christensen drives around from place to place just photographing almost like we he's pointing out to us look that's that building where something happened years ago I remember going to school there all you know all these little stories that you can imagine are echoing around these photographs that he wants to share with us that authenticness that William Christenbury has in his images the the unique style of William Eggleston and and all photographers who have stood out in the Fine Art world is because they have tapped into their own unique Vision their way of seeing the world and it is one of the hardest things for a photographer to to really get to grips with once you've learned all the basic stuff and I've put together an introduction to developing your own authentic voice in photography if you're interested in finding out more please click on the link in the description box below in Walker evans's photography people they seem to feature most you get a feeling that Evans is is most interested in the people themselves however when you look at William christensen's work the strongest Echoes you get from being influenced by Walker Evans is this straight on approach to the buildings that the buildings are the real things that he's interested in the photographs themselves are taken like Walker evans's without masses of refinement this is completely an odds with William eggleston's sometimes crazy compositions I wonder if that's why they were so friendly because the two of them both in personality and photography are like the yin and yang Fire and Ice you know so so you can sort of see when you get that matter of fact feeling of the compositions from willing Christian Breeze they're like he's giving this subject an equal chance to be important with all the other things he's photographing much like a little twist on eggleston's idea of democratic photography where everything is worthy of a photograph I often used to see places like this as a photography student in South Africa abandoned buildings and if you've lived anywhere where there's a bit of open space I'm sure that your familiar with these places you know like a random house or you know a barn in the middle of nowhere and you have to wonder to yourself did the person who built this now dilapidated half gone plays feel proud of their achievements that store owner who originally put up that faded rusted sign or the person who drew a five cent Coca-Cola advert on the side of a building did they ever expect that that war would remain that it would be photographed and and traged long after they themselves had gone I don't really get that feeling from Eggleston or friedlander or even Walker Evans to a degree for me their photographs they serve a different purpose in my life than Kristen Bruce his take me on a journey to a time and a place that our special to someone very specific that's Mr Christenbury the photographer you get that feeling from looking through his photographs that he is just wanting to share things and that's that's why I love them so much that they are presented without any real message now for many photographers the simple Act of documenting a place they love and is slowly eaten by time and Kudzu would be enough but there is more to William Christopher than just the photographs and this is what has really made me fall in love with his approach I photographed this beautiful little Country Church in a community or near a community called Sprott Alabama s-p-r-o-t-t and when I got the picture processed back in Washington it began to just literally haunt me in the best sense of that word haunt I just didn't know what it was saying to me that I had the idea of why don't you try to make a sculpture related to this so I went to work I had this view with the brownie I had a side view with the Brownie and I had a thumbnail sketch in my Sketchbook of the rear of the church and this is the end result it took me one year to figure it out that is one of the most Charming things that I have seen in a long time these lovingly created and I suppose in a way restored buildings that can't physically be saved things from his Heritage that he wants to preserve that is a wonderful way of making history feel like it's now like you can actually you can reach and touch it you could it makes those photographs that are speaking to us transcend into something even more because you can see the building how it probably was in its prime then I believe he even uses the dirt that he collects from around the actual building to place the model on it's not easy for me to talk about I'll try and this in the sense of space isolation in space where these buildings are trying to evoke not Nostalgia but this deep profound feeling for a little structure that was once there and has now gone now I am often consumed with Nostalgia he says that's what we've been told very regularly so of course there is going to be an element of that in the way that I interpret these photographs just as much as I I lean on that Nostalgia when I look at William eggleston's photography now you may have a different interpretation and of course that is the joy of the approach to this type of Photography where there isn't an obvious statement being made by the photographer you know they're not trying to give you a message or make some eye candy or you know any of this kind of stuff they are just leaving it open to your own individual interpretation by the matter of factness about the way that the subject or the place has been photographed with Walker Evans photographing Hale County and William Christenbury living in Hale county is not hard to see why walk evans's photography influenced Mr Christenbury so very much if you are interested in finding out more about Walker Evans and his amazing sympathetic photography check out this video over here thank you ever so much for watching and I will see you again soon

Channel: The Photographic Eye

Views: 22,114

Keywords: Photographers, Modern Color Photography, Fine Art Photography, American South, Vanishing Places, Mundane Scenes, Fine Art Career, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Lee Freelander, William Christenberry, Hale County Alabama, Abandoned Buildings, Urbex, Dilapidated Buildings, Authentic Voice in Photography, Evans Influence, Unique Vision, Democratic Photography, Nostalgia, Interpretation, Hale County, Walker Evans Influence., willaim christenberry, fine art photography career

Id: ihV4keLP1dY

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Sun May 28 2023