CAMERA MAN'S JOURNEY Julian Dimock's South

A breathtaking trove of black-and-white photographs made in Columbia and Beaufort between 1904 and 1906. . . . The photographs have been astonishingly preserved and handsomely published in this most attractive volume that does great honor to the publisher, the editors and, above all, to the photographer and his subjects. --William Starr "The State " There is a quiet devastation in these communities. 40 years after the end of the Civil War. Weathered ancients (here you'll find Tamar Blythwood, 116 years old) stand stock-still for their portraits, but life around them is in motion: Exuberant youth balances on fenceposts, wipes its nose with a sleeve. --Peter Terzian "Newsday " Adds considerably to the canon of southern imagery while also challenging some of the preconceptions about southern photography in the early 1900s. Though technically beautiful, the images avoid soft-focus sentimentality that was popular at the turn of the century. And though humanistic in tone, these images are remarkably unsentimental in portrayals of poor South Carolina blacks. Like Paul Strand, Dimock is able to mix journalistic integrity with an aesthetic approach that elevates his imagery art. --Tennessean [Dimock's] exacting eye and large format glass plates created prints so sharp you feel you can step into them. Ex-slaves, servants, sharecroppers and their often-gleeful children come alive in their hard condition. We sense their great beauty, their vitality, their endurance. The essays about Dimock and this setting are fascinating. --Camera & Arts [A] rare and valuable collection . . . Centered on a few towns in South Carolina, the images are noteworthy for their inherent moral frustration with social norms and their idiosyncratic portrayal of the dignity, power, and identity of African American fellow citizens during a time of horrific racial strife. --DoubleTake If Dimock's photographs fail to depict the repression and violence that circumscribed black life, they do suggest, often quite eloquently, how black South Carolinians endured, the extraordinary resourcefulness, spirit, and resiliency they displayed. --Leon F. Litwack Dimock destroys myths, stereotypes, and misconceptions with his images of a spirited and persevering people. --Cleveland L. Sellers Jr. "Director of African American Studies, University of South Carolina " A vivid, moving story wherein the images bring to life unspoken words that strongly remind us that this world of downtrodden and oppressed people whose spirits did not break was never meant to be silent. --Dori Sanders