The Enigma
Clarence John Laughlin
American, 1905–1985

Details
Title
The Enigma
Artist/Maker
Clarence John Laughlin (American, 1905–1985)
Date
1941
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
13 5/8 × 10 5/8 inches
Credit
Purchase
Accession #
75.76
On View
Currently not on view
These tall Corinthian columns are all that remains of Windsor Plantation of Port Gibson, Mississippi. The home was burned first during the Civil War and then again mysteriously in 1890. The clouds above the columns form a question mark above the structure’s ruins. For Laughlin, this symbolized the unknown circumstances of the building’s demise. He wrote in the photo caption: “From the cores of the brick columns young trees sprout, the whole structure suggesting an incredible upsurge of Classical civilization, somehow completely lost in time and space.”
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