Imagine a mysterious and murky sky hides behind two farming towers, while flatland spreads gallantly from one end of the frame to another. The creator of this image characterizes rural areas of Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama with black and white photographs similar to this one.
Old dirt roads, abandoned shacks, and never-ending fields fill Barnard Observatory Gammill Gallery of the University of Mississippi campus. Classic rural areas are the bases of David Zurick’s collection entitled Southern Crossings: Where Geography and Photography Meet.
He views landscapes, man-made and natural, as “the intentional or inadvertent markings that humans make when we live in a place over time.”
Though he is a native of Michigan, Zurick currently lives in Kentucky. His idea for the exhibit sparked from his desire to do a collection close to home. The geographer and self-taught photographer has received numerous awards for his photographs from around the world.
The pieces displayed in Barnard Observatory depict a journey Zurick takes along the southern region of the United States to find cultural rich landscapes. On this travel, he captured places that normally are over looked for deep interpretation. A neglected swimming pool in Natchez, Mississippi is the subject of Zurick’s belief that the most meaningful views are not for show; everyday settings say the most about the diversity in the South.
The collection ranges from the years 1997 to 2005. It includes pre Hurricane Katrina sites in Biloxi and a restricted biochemical cemetery in Taft, Louisiana. Zurick took daring shots in order to illustrate hidden beauties.
The exhibit will be on display from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday until October 15th.
George Thompson, Director of the Center for American Places at Columbia College in Chicago, will give a lecture about American regions using examples from Zurick’s exhibit on Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at noon.
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