Southern Charm/ Alabama, 1955; from the portfolio Photographs: Elliott Erwitt
Elliott Erwitt, American (born France), 1928 - 2023
nagative 1955; print 1977
Gelatin silver print
Edition 9/100
Overall: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James Hunter
© Elliott Erwitt
PH.978.28.9
Publisher
Acorn Editions Ltd., Geneva, Switzerland
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Label
This spare image of an anonymous woman walking in front of a mural inscribed with the phrase “Southern Charm” calls to mind many elements of Southern culture. Perhaps the most evocative is the concept of the Southern belle, both a media trope and a real-life social institution tied to the aesthetics of traditional gender roles, with dark roots in plantation culture and an idealization of whiteness. Elliott Erwitt evokes Southern charm, constantly asked of the Southern woman, in the mural’s curving script, elegant filigree, and in his behatted figure. Is she a Southern belle? Her dark clothes remind us of funerary dress, but her anonymity asks us to consider our assumptions of social status and provides us with no easy answers.
The work I care about is terribly simple. I observe, I try to entertain, but above all I want pictures that are emotion. Little else interests me in photography. —Elliott Erwitt, 1988
From the 2022 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 104, Southern Gothic, curated by Abigail Smith '23, Conroy Intern
Course History
ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020
ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020
ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020
ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020
ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020
ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 104, Southern Gothic, Abigail Smith, Class of 2023, Conroy Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 8–February 27, 2022.
Signspotting: Twentieth-Century Photographs, Prints, and Paintings from the Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 30-August 26, 2001.
The Photograph as Document, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, English 7, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 2-December 15, 1996.
Three Photographic Portfolios, Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 29-August 21, 1983.
Provenance
Irene Mennen Hunter (1918-2008) and James Hewat Hunter (1919-2000), Manchester, Vermont; given to present collection, 1978.
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