O. N. Pruitt's Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South (Documentary Arts and Culture, Published in association with ... for Documentary Studies at Duke University)

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About this book

Photographer O. N. Pruitt (1891–1967) was for some forty years the de facto documentarian of Lowndes County, Mississippi, and its county seat, Columbus--known to locals as "Possum Town." His body of work recalls many FSA photographers, but Pruitt was not an outsider with an agenda; he was a community member with intimate knowledge of the town and its residents. He photographed his fellow white citizens and Black ones as well, in circumstances ranging from the mundane to the horrific: family picnics, parades, river baptisms, carnivals, fires, funerals, two of Mississippi's last public and legal executions by hanging, and a lynching. From formal portraits to candid images of events in the moment, Pruitt's documentary of a specific yet representative southern town offers viewers today an invitation to meditate on the interrelations of photography, community, race, and historical memory.

Columbus native Berkley Hudson was photographed by Pruitt, and for more than three decades he has considered and curated Pruitt's expansive archive, both as a scholar of media and visual journalism and as a community member. This stunning book presents Pruitt's photography as never before, combining more than 190 images with a biographical introduction and Hudson's short essays and reflective captions on subjects such as religion, ethnic identity, the ordinary graces of everyday life, and the exercise of brutal power.

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Digital book

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of North Carolina Press (January 18, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1469662701
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1469662701
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.42 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9 x 1 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #951,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #310 in Southern U.S. Biographies
- #640 in Photo Essays (Books)
- #7,174 in United States Biographies

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