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978-0-9624255-7-8
0-9624255-7-5
$19.95 paperback
9" x 12"
141 pages
black-and-white photographs
Down Home Press
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From the Introduction:
This old red clay is home.
Try as we might to escape, we can't. This is a deep-seated stain that
won't wash out. And few would have it any other way.
We sometimes carry a lot of
emotional baggage from our southern upbringings, but we are rarely
ashamed to admit it, no matter how deprived or degrading our
circumstances may have been. Some of us even wear the bad experiences
like a badge of honor to be bragged about at the slightest opportunity.
No matter how bad conditions
get or how much they change, we know deep inside that we love this land
and belong here. I know I could never leave it for long, and I never
felt that I could function on a larger stage.
The vast influx of new people
from other sections of this country and outside have added their own
flavor to the environment. The last forty years could be called the
Americanization of the South. It's not unlike what has happened to other
cultures worldwide. As a Southerner, you hate to see this individuality
die, but you learn to be thankful for the positive changes and treasure
the good that remains from the original.
This slice of time,
1950-1990, was ours. What did we do with it? Undeniably, we were
constantly grasping for things ill-defined and elusive. We made some
quantum leaps forward that were tempered with some giant steps
backwards.
As a newspaper photographer,
I had the opportunity to document the character of the people and the
sweeping changes in our lifestyle in the Carolinas and the South. To
this day, I am truly amazed at how open people were and how readily they
allowed me and the writers that I worked with to record some of their
innermost feelings. At times, I felt like a priest in the confession
booth.
At the time you put some
events on film, you're not always able to judge how important they may
be years later. I leave it to you. I hope that you will look at the
pictures, think about them and say, "Yeah, that's the way it
was." If you do, I will have succeeded.
about the author
For nearly forty years, Don Sturkey was a news photographer in the
Carolinas. His photographs have won numerous awards and have appeared in
Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, The Saturday Evening Post, and many
other publications. Sturkey retired in 1989 as chief photographer for
the Charlotte Observer. He now lives in Belmont, North Carolina,
with his wife.
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