Of One Time, One Place Eudora Welty belongs to a very small group of makers who have received recognition at the highest level for both literature and photography. When the book was first published in 1971, Welty surprised her readers: many only then discovered that the celebrated writer was also a gifted photographer. To date, this is the only book in which she selected all the images herself.
Of One Time, One Place Eudora Welty's photographic work was given a prominent place in book form for the first time. Although Welty became known worldwide as a writer, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the book The Optimist's Daughter, photography has always been part of her way of seeing. As early as the thirties, she captured daily life in Mississippi with a compact camera, parallel to her literary development.
Throughout her writing life, the camera was a constant companion. Welty took the hundred photos in this book during the years of the Great Depression, as she traveled through her home state of Mississippi. They show a world of poverty and deprivation, but never without dignity.
Men, women and children - black and white - move about in everyday life, unaware of their historical position. Welty's gaze is recording, not moralizing. As she herself writes: “The Depression was not a noticeable phenomenon in the poorest state in the Union.”
In this new edition all images are for the first time digitally rescanned, with the aim of maximizing contrast and tonality. The result is not a modernization, but a clarification: details become more visible, nuances richer, while the original sequencing and intention remain completely intact. The photos retain their documentary power, but gain visual depth.
“The Depression was not a noticeable phenomenon in the poorest state in the Union.” ~ Eudora Welty
The foreword was written by William Maxwell, a close friend and literary colleague of Welty, who places her photographic work within her broader artistic world. His text does not offer an analysis, but an appreciative view, fitting for an oeuvre that is difficult to explain, but makes you feel all the more strongly.
One Time, One Place is now regarded as a benchmark within the southern region photography history. The images make it clear that Welty's storytelling did not only consist of words. What she did with sentences in her stories, she did with her camera in silences: capturing human endurance, community and continuity - once, in one place.
One Time, One Place - Eudora Welty
Pages: 134
Price: € 34.99
Publisher: University Press Of Mississippi
