Southern Gothic

Gainsville, 2001. Digital color pigment print,negative date 2001, printed and limited 2005, 14 1/2” X 13” (the image 9” X 9”), this issue for the Halsey Institute, College of Charleston. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered 3 of 10, in pencil, in the margin. Light foxing (verso only), else fine. Framed and UV glazed. Ex–Gay Burke, acquired by her from Taylor. The tension between art and technology is almost over, though a few crusty traditionalists linger. Maggie Taylor was there at the beginning, a surrealist photographer of mysterious narrative riddles, and a major one, if not “the” major one (you can look her up). I think Southern Gothic is her best, and the association is a good one too, being that Gay Ann Burke (1946–2017) became the first female full professor at the University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History, where she developed a distinguished fine art photography program, and became the “Mother of Alabama Art Photography” before retiring in 2015.

You’re not a perfected artist until you have learned to cheat for the sake of beauty.