Initiated in 1996, the High’s Picturing the South project provides a current perspective on Southern subjects and themes while building the Museum’s collection of contemporary photography. The works commissioned for this series have inspired some of today’s foremost photographers to create fresh chapters in ongoing projects or wholly new bodies of work: Sally Mann’s inaugural commission supported her shift to landscape work, and Alec Soth’s commission resulted in many of the photographs that would become his celebrated Broken Manual series. Other notable commissions include Dawoud Bey’s portraits of Atlanta high school students, Richard Misrach’s elegiac documentation of the Mississippi Delta’s “Cancer Alley,” and Martin Parr’s sardonic take on Atlanta high society.
To learn more about the High Museum’s Picturing the South commissions including in-depth articles, interactive content, archival materials, and video interviews with the artists, please visit our LINK digital archive.
