Ellie Lee Weems, Untitled, 1930-40s.
Maxine
Payne curates exhibit of southern photographer Ellie Weems for Institute 193
CONWAY, Ark. (March 28, 2023) — Hendrix art professor and
photographer Maxine Payne recently curated an exhibit featuring the historic photographic archives of the late Southern photographer Ellie Lee Weems for
Institute 193 in Lexington, Kentucky.
The photographs of Weems, along with the Payne-curated
archives of the Massengill family photographs, are included in The High Museum
of Art’s 2023 exhibition in Atlanta, Georgia, and the publication Photography
and the American South since 1850.
Weems (1901-1983) was born in McDonough, Georgia, and
attended Tuskegee Institute, where he studied under C.M. Battey, founder of the
school’s photography department. After Tuskegee, Weems moved to Atlanta, where
he practiced photography. By 1928, he had worked as the proprietor of the Paul
Poole Photography Studio in Atlanta. In 1929, Weems moved to Jacksonville,
Florida, where he was a successful photographer for half a century in three
different studios. He was renowned in Florida for his images of community life
and the physical fabric of cities and towns.
“Our relationship with photography is vastly different in the
digital and social media era than those who lived in an analog world,” said
Payne. “We must therefore consider Weems’ work in the context of time and place
to better understand the people represented. When, where, and by whom images
are made are vital to our understanding: What does the studio portrait tell us
about the subject, and what does our interpretation of the studio portrait
reveal about ourselves?”
“In looking at these photographs, it’s clear that Weems
wanted to represent his subjects in the best way possible,” she said. “Through
the compositions, lighting, and direction of a masterful photographer,
beautiful and successful people were recorded in images that they could be proud
of. Here are angels, queens, scouts, and soldiers.”
Payne’s collaborations with Institute 193 founder Phillip
March Jones led to the 2015 Dust-to-Digital publication of Massengill family
photographs in Making Pictures: Three for a Dime.
About
Maxine Payne
Currently a professor in the Art Department at Hendrix
College, Maxine Payne works to find ways to engage community in her work and
speaks to the idea of place. She currently shares the Margaret Berry Hutton
Odyssey Professorship with author and Hendrix English and creative writing
professor Dr. Tyrone Jaeger. Their collaborative project with Hendrix College
students and alumni, called Audio Visual Arkansas, focuses on collecting
digital stories about Arkansans and can be seen at AVARK.net.
She was awarded the 2013 National Museum of Women in the
Arts, Arkansas Fellowship for her photographic work. Since 2004, she has
photographed hundreds of Arkansas historic bridges for the Arkansas Highway and
Transportation Department.
She received her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa where she
was also an Iowa Arts Fellow. She was selected a Fellow of the American
Photography Institute at New York University, as well as a Fellow of the
College Art Association.
Her work can be seen at www.maxinepayne.com.
About Institute
193
Founded in 2009, Institute
193 collaborates with artists, musicians, and writers to document the cultural landscape
of the modern South, embracing the notion that groundbreaking contemporary art
can and does emerge outside of large metropolitan centers. Institute 193
provides artists from Kentucky and the Southeastern United States — selected
not by commercial viability, but by the quality and relevance of their work — with
exhibition and publication opportunities. It also endeavors to help these
artists gain broader media exposure and foster connections in art markets
across the globe by hosting musical performances, film screenings, lectures,
and other community-driven events in addition to visual art exhibitions. Learn
more at www.institute193.org.