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Photographs
Eudora Welty's Photographs, originally published in 1989, serves as the definitive book of the critically acclaimed writer's photographs. Her camera's viewfinder captured deep compassion and her artist's sensibilities. Photographs is a deeply felt documentation of 1930s Mississippi taken by a keenly observant photographer who showed the human side of her subjects. Also included in the book are pictures from Welty's travels to New York, New Orleans, South Carolina, Mexico, and Europe in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.
The photographs in this edition are new digital scans of Welty's original negatives and authentic prints, restoring the images to their original glory. It also features sixteen additional images, several of which were selected by Welty for her 1936 photography exhibit in New York City and have never before been reproduced for publication, along with a resonant, new foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and Mississippi native Natasha Trethewey.
The photographs in this edition are new digital scans of Welty's original negatives and authentic prints, restoring the images to their original glory. It also features sixteen additional images, several of which were selected by Welty for her 1936 photography exhibit in New York City and have never before been reproduced for publication, along with a resonant, new foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and Mississippi native Natasha Trethewey.
232 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
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616 people want to read
About the author
Eudora Welty
245 books1,027 followersEudora Alice Welty was an award-winning American author who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Her book The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America.
Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived a significant portion of her life in the city's Belhaven neighborhood, where her home has been preserved. She was educated at the Mississippi State College for Women (now called Mississippi University for Women), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia Business School. While at Columbia University, where she was the captain of the women's polo team, Welty was a regular at Romany Marie's café in 1930.
During the 1930s, Welty worked as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration, a job that sent her all over the state of Mississippi photographing people from all economic and social classes. Collections of her photographs are One Time, One Place and Photographs.
Welty's true love was literature, not photography, and she soon devoted her energy to writing fiction. Her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," appeared in 1936. Her work attracted the attention of Katherine Anne Porter, who became a mentor to her and wrote the foreword to Welty's first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green, in 1941. The book immediately established Welty as one of American literature's leading lights and featured the legendary and oft-anthologized stories "Why I Live at the P.O.," "Petrified Man," and "A Worn Path." Her novel, The Optimist's Daughter, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
In 1992, Welty was awarded the Rea Award for the Short Story for her lifetime contributions to the American short story, and was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, founded in 1987. In her later life, she lived near Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, where, despite her fame, she was still a common sight among the people of her hometown.
Eudora Welty died of pneumonia in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 92, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.
Excerpted and adopted from Wikipedia.
Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived a significant portion of her life in the city's Belhaven neighborhood, where her home has been preserved. She was educated at the Mississippi State College for Women (now called Mississippi University for Women), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia Business School. While at Columbia University, where she was the captain of the women's polo team, Welty was a regular at Romany Marie's café in 1930.
During the 1930s, Welty worked as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration, a job that sent her all over the state of Mississippi photographing people from all economic and social classes. Collections of her photographs are One Time, One Place and Photographs.
Welty's true love was literature, not photography, and she soon devoted her energy to writing fiction. Her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," appeared in 1936. Her work attracted the attention of Katherine Anne Porter, who became a mentor to her and wrote the foreword to Welty's first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green, in 1941. The book immediately established Welty as one of American literature's leading lights and featured the legendary and oft-anthologized stories "Why I Live at the P.O.," "Petrified Man," and "A Worn Path." Her novel, The Optimist's Daughter, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
In 1992, Welty was awarded the Rea Award for the Short Story for her lifetime contributions to the American short story, and was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, founded in 1987. In her later life, she lived near Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, where, despite her fame, she was still a common sight among the people of her hometown.
Eudora Welty died of pneumonia in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 92, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.
Excerpted and adopted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 12, 2022
Welty had no training in photography when she took these photographs, many in places that I have visited since I live in the same state. Despite an untrained eye, she took very good shots that have a natural feel to them, an authenticity. I often studied them but this year, I have been studying photography when time allowed and I was so impressed with her work. She had a natural gift. It is the gift of a person who is observant, thoughtful, and yes, a storyteller. I imagine she saw stories everywhere she went, though probably not on a deliberate conscious level. There is no set-up present in these shots. She was intuitively capturing life. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
July 13, 2011
Reynolds Price, in the introduction of this luminous book of Eudora Welty's "snapshot" photographs, quotes her as revealing:
"...my wish, indeed my continuing passion, would be not to point the finger in judgment but to part a curtain, that invisible shadow that falls between people, the veil of indifference to each other's presence, each other's wonder, each other's human plight."
These snapshots do just that -- they part the curtains. (Welty had little photographic training and did not stage her subjects and thus preferred the term "snapshot" rather than "photograph" as a representation of her work.) She captures moments in time with honesty, a lack of pretension, and overwhelming compassion.
Pair these photos with her atmospheric writing and you'll float. Or at least I did.
"...my wish, indeed my continuing passion, would be not to point the finger in judgment but to part a curtain, that invisible shadow that falls between people, the veil of indifference to each other's presence, each other's wonder, each other's human plight."
These snapshots do just that -- they part the curtains. (Welty had little photographic training and did not stage her subjects and thus preferred the term "snapshot" rather than "photograph" as a representation of her work.) She captures moments in time with honesty, a lack of pretension, and overwhelming compassion.
Pair these photos with her atmospheric writing and you'll float. Or at least I did.
May 10, 2022
Beautiful and evocative black and white portraits from another time, though they have in almost every picture a sense of timelessness. Forewords by Natasha Trethewey and Reynolds Price provide perspective, and a good interview with Welty describes her art.
April 11, 2019
Tokia kitokia pirma pažintis su šia amerikiečių rašytoja...per jos fotografijų albumą. Kaip pati atorė savo netrumpame interviu knygos pradžioje sako, kad ji nepretenduoja į profesionalią fotografiją, vadindama savo nuotraukas 'snapshot'ais. Tiesiog norėjo dokumentuoti savo gimtąją Misisipės valstiją, Luizianą. Nuotraukos darytos apie 1930- uosius, didžiosios depresijos laikais. Herojai - pagrinde, vargingieji afro-amerikiečiai...
March 22, 2017
A comprehensive collection of Welty's compelling photographs that were taken in her native Mississippi as well as throughout the world. Anyone who enjoys Eudora Welty's writing needs to also study her photography. Welty states that her photographic images do not inform or influence her writing. Rather, she sets out to record what she sees with no intention to exploit the individual or subject. Her writing, she says, is driven by her memories of actual events, people, and places. Photography and writing are two separate mediums of expression. The book's introduction by Reynolds Price and the interview of Welty conducted in her home in 1989 shed more light on the remarkable vision and talent of this woman.
October 12, 2018
“A dazzling record of this writer’s unique and special vision” indeed. A thoughtful preface by Reynolds Price and an insightful introductory interview with Eudora Welty frame this powerful collection of Welty’s photographs, most taken for the WPA during the Great Depression, some of her travels, and a few of her friends and family.
From “Introduction, Eudora Welty and Photography: An Interview”:
“I never posed anybody—that was on principle. . . . I let my subjects go on with what they were doing and, by framing or cutting and by selection, found what composition rose from that. So, I think that’s a quality that makes them different from those of professionals who were purposefully photographing for an agency, or a cause.” (p. xix)
“It’s not my nature to be on the other side of the camera. It came about through the circumstances of my being a writer.” (p. xix)
“I suppose that what made me take the pictures was some irresistible notion that I might capture some essence of the place I’d just arrived at, new to me and my eyes and my camera. Yes, I was smitten by the identity of place wherever I was, from Mississippi on—I still am.”
“I tried to tell the truth.”
Favorite photos:
“A woman of the ‘thirties”
“Mississippi, 1930s”
“Helena Arden”
“At the bootlegger’s house”
“Born in This Hand”
“Jackson”
“Saturday off”
“Farmers in town”
“Dolls”
“Sisters”
“Washwoman”
“Ruins of Windsor”*
“Country church”
“Mexico”
“Katherine Anne Porter/Yaddo”
“Elizabeth Bowen”
“Eudora Welty, Hubert Creekmore, Margaret Harmon, and Nash K. Burger”
From “Introduction, Eudora Welty and Photography: An Interview”:
“I never posed anybody—that was on principle. . . . I let my subjects go on with what they were doing and, by framing or cutting and by selection, found what composition rose from that. So, I think that’s a quality that makes them different from those of professionals who were purposefully photographing for an agency, or a cause.” (p. xix)
“It’s not my nature to be on the other side of the camera. It came about through the circumstances of my being a writer.” (p. xix)
“I suppose that what made me take the pictures was some irresistible notion that I might capture some essence of the place I’d just arrived at, new to me and my eyes and my camera. Yes, I was smitten by the identity of place wherever I was, from Mississippi on—I still am.”
“I tried to tell the truth.”
Favorite photos:
“A woman of the ‘thirties”
“Mississippi, 1930s”
“Helena Arden”
“At the bootlegger’s house”
“Born in This Hand”
“Jackson”
“Saturday off”
“Farmers in town”
“Dolls”
“Sisters”
“Washwoman”
“Ruins of Windsor”*
“Country church”
“Mexico”
“Katherine Anne Porter/Yaddo”
“Elizabeth Bowen”
“Eudora Welty, Hubert Creekmore, Margaret Harmon, and Nash K. Burger”
January 18, 2010
This is one of my favorite photography books ever. Welty's work is similar to the FSA photographers' photos (especially since it was done during the same time) but she brings an insider's eye to the subject of the South. There is also powerful and almost mystical feel to her photographs of women. Really beautiful.
December 21, 2024
This large-scale book contains an extensive collection of Welty's photographs from both her WPA work and personal shots. It is so unusual to see another dimension of a writer's artistic expression and to think about how her photography informed her writing and vice versa. This was such an enjoyable book to read.
May 4, 2018
Eudora Welty's photographs are remarkable for their exceptionally kind, humanistic viewpoint. It's something you never really notice is missing until you're confronted with it, but it's a quality that sets her apart from some of the more noted photographers of her era (e.g. Walker Evans & Dorothea Lange). She has a definite way of capturing people like a casual, relaxed snapshot from a family album. Like they'd presumably want to be portrayed.
August 30, 2018
Most fans of Eudora Welty recognize her as an author, but fewer realize that she was also an accomplished photographer. This small edition contains numerous images of small town and country life in the Mississippi Delta as it was in the 1930s through the 1950s, with a strong emphasis on candid shots of people of color. This is a fantastic look into daily life.
June 18, 2019
Moving and insightful photos of the pre- ww2 South. A wonderful eye for both people and architecture, as they changed forever.
May 13, 2020
Beautiful
September 17, 2013
Photos taken by author Eudora Welty in the 1930s - 1950s.
Favorites:
Saturday Off/Jackson (15.)
New Orleans (54.)
Crystal Springs (73.)
Utica (75.)
Hello and Goodbye/Jackson (84.)
Twin tombstones/Mississippi (98.)
Bird Pageant/Jackson (102.)
Home by dark/Yalobusha County (115.) 1936
Catholic Church/Rodney (118.)
Ruins of Windsor/Port Gibson (119.) 1942
Sideshow, State Fair/Jackson (139.) 1939
Hattie Carnegie show window/New York City (155.)
Katherine Anne Porter/Yaddo (205.)
Lehman Engel/Jackson (216.)
Westchester County, N.Y. (219.)
Helen Lotterhos/Jackson (222.)
Chestina Andrews Welty/Jackson (225.)
Favorites:
Saturday Off/Jackson (15.)
New Orleans (54.)
Crystal Springs (73.)
Utica (75.)
Hello and Goodbye/Jackson (84.)
Twin tombstones/Mississippi (98.)
Bird Pageant/Jackson (102.)
Home by dark/Yalobusha County (115.) 1936
Catholic Church/Rodney (118.)
Ruins of Windsor/Port Gibson (119.) 1942
Sideshow, State Fair/Jackson (139.) 1939
Hattie Carnegie show window/New York City (155.)
Katherine Anne Porter/Yaddo (205.)
Lehman Engel/Jackson (216.)
Westchester County, N.Y. (219.)
Helen Lotterhos/Jackson (222.)
Chestina Andrews Welty/Jackson (225.)
June 29, 2017
A comprehensive collection of Eudora Welty's photographs, with an introduction by Reynolds Price and an interview of Welty. She was not only a brilliant short story writer but a masterful photographer as well. My favorites are (115) Home by Dark and (119) Ruins of Windsor, in which the viewer can see Miss Eudora's ghostly silhouette, which adds to the mystery of the place and speaks of a bygone era and the ravages of time.
June 1, 2008
Welty's photographs reverberate with her writing by showing us life in snapshots. Her work seems to show a person in a particular moment, sometimes without context, but still imaginatively, beautifully, and insightfully.
July 9, 2021
Gorgeous. Sally Mann surely learned a thing or two from Welty’s photographs of the “Deep South”! I love how peopled these photographs are...and the way they depict segregation. Black joy. Fashion. Advertising. Landscape(s).
January 12, 2008
I love that Welty captured these people and their lives in photos in addition to words.
November 2, 2008
I don't know about the book, but I own this photo. Perhaps my rating reflects my Mississippi roots, but so be it. Other photographs I have seen by Welty are of equal quality.
July 15, 2012
Although Welty is best known for her writing, her photographs are revealing, compassionate and stunning. I never tire of leafing through this book. I always notice some new detail.
January 24, 2016
An Era brought to life. A must-read to understand why the Civil Rights movement had to come into being.
August 17, 2011
Found in a used bookstore in Alma, new Brunswick! Perfect addition to the study of Eudora Welty!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews