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Snapshots of the South: Eudora Welty'sPhotography and Contested Images ofRaceWendy Atkins-Sayre aa Department of Communication Studies, University of SouthernMississippi

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To cite this article: Wendy Atkins-Sayre (2012): Snapshots of the South: Eudora Welty's Photographyand Contested Images of Race, Southern Communication Journal, 77:2, 77-93

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Snapshots of the South:Eudora Welty’s Photography andContested Images of RaceWendy Atkins-Sayre

Best known for her Southern fiction, Eudora Welty began her career with the Works

Progress Administration in the 1930s. Her photographic ‘‘snapshots,’’ as she called them,

served as a window into the Jim Crow South, focusing on the poor, Black, female experi-

ence and providing an image of the South that runs counter to public memory. Welty’s

photographs alter memories of the segregated South by allowing contemporary audiences

to gaze upon the Black experience, highlighting positive experiences and emphasizing a

shared history. This altered public memory allows for more possibilities of a shared past

and the potential for healing. At the same time, this alteration is problematic because it

undermines the reality of the suffering experienced by African Americans.

[M]y wish, indeed my continuing passion, would be not to point the finger injudgment 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’shuman plight.

Eudora Welty (1971, p. 8)

Eudora Welty is celebrated as penning some of the best Southern-inspired novels and

short stories, including the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Optimist’s Daughter

(1972) and her short story collection A Curtain of Green (1941). Although she is best

known for her literary career, Eudora Welty also is recognized for her brief, yet

noteworthy, photographic contributions. Surrounded by artists in her hometown

of Jackson, Mississippi, Welty explored her state through the lens of a camera. Orig-

inally viewing photography as a mere hobby, she began to consider the possibility of a

Wendy Atkins-Sayre, Department of Communication Studies, University of Southern Mississippi. Correspon-

dence to: Wendy Atkins-Sayre, University of Southern Mississippi, Department of Communication Studies, 118

College Drive #5131, Hattiesburg, MS 39406. E-mail: wendy.atkinssayre@usm.edu

Southern Communication Journal

Vol. 77, No. 2, April–June 2012, pp. 77–93

ISSN 1041-794X (print)/1930-3203 (online)

# 2012 Southern States Communication Association. DOI: 10.1080/1041794X.2011.606520

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photographic career (Eby, 2005). Frequently snapping photographs, ‘‘snapshots’’ as

she preferred to call them, of common images in Mississippi, Welty attempted to take

those collections of photographs and sell them as a portrait of the South. She met

with limited success, displaying some of her photographs in small New York art

galleries in the 1930s, but ultimately she faced rejection of her proposed book of

photographs from publishers until much later in her life (Eby, 2005). In 1936, Welty

attempted to gain a photography position with the Resettlement Administration, but

was instead offered a position as a junior publicity agent with the Works Progress

Administration, hired to write short documentary pieces about ‘‘people who were

making do in the teeth of the Depression’’ (Price, 1989, p. ix). In fact, Welty’s photo-

graphic career began before she turned to literature but reflects some of the imagery

from her future literary works. As T. A. Frail (2009) writes, ‘‘The pictures . . . show the

rural poor and convey the want and worry of the Great Depression. But more than

that, they show the photographer’s wide-ranging curiosity and unstinting empathy—

which would mark her work as a writer, too’’ (para. 2).

Welty’s photographs are nondescript and unique at the same time. Viewing her

photos devoid of context, one might notice the distinct perspective offered, but also

might compare her photos to those of other photographers who skillfully capture

poverty and race. At the same time, the fact that an eventual major Southern author

snapped the photographs attracted an audience that might not have emerged other-

wise. Welty’s eventual literary success led to the publishing of two collections of her

photographic works: One Time, One Place: Mississippi in the Depression in 1971 and

Eudora Welty Photographs in 1989. From 2009 to 2011, a Welty photography exhibit

featuring some of these photographs has appeared in New York, Jackson, Mississippi,

and Atlanta (Eudora Welty Foundation, 2011). Aside from Welty’s fame, however,

her photographs are studied because of the insight that they provide into the South.

Most significantly, Welty’s photographs portray a unique image of the African

American female experience in the Depression-era South. As Reynolds Price (1989)

writes, ‘‘What she captured, once and for all, were not the small public victories of

groups, the state-fair exhibits of gourds and calves, but the larger private triumphs

of man, woman, child—moment by moment—they won their lives against time, fate,

and human opposition’’ (p. ix). Even more importantly, Welty provided a rare

glimpse of African American women. As Hine (1999) argues, ‘‘We all know too well

what this society believes Black women look like. The stereotypes abound, from the

Mammy to the maid, from the tragic mulatto to the dark temptress . . .what we havenot seen nearly enough is the simple truth of our complex and multidimensional

lives’’ (p. ix). Thus, the collection of photographs is worthy of study because of

the insight that it provides into public memory of the South and African American

women’s experiences, in particular.

Rhetorical scholars have accounted for Depression-era poverty photographs. For

example, Cara Finnegan’s (2003) comprehensive analysis of the Farm Security

Administration’s (FSA) photographs, most notably those of Dorothea Lange, argues

that the photos made government poverty narratives more rhetorically powerful,

serving to legitimize the work of the FSA before Congress. In fact, Hariman and

78 The Southern Communication Journal

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Lucaites (2007) argue that Lange’s iconic ‘‘Migrant Mother’’ photograph has become

symbolic of the Depression experience in America. Although these works have

accounted for similar photography, what sets Welty’s photographs apart from the

FSA photos is that those photos were always intended to be public representations

of poverty while Welty’s photos were primarily taken as ‘‘field notes,’’ providing

material for her journalistic pieces. Consequently, although previous studies of the

rhetorical nature of Depression-era photographs inform this reading, a rhetorical

analysis of Welty’s photos can provide additional insight into how the photographs

shape our understanding of poverty, race, gender, and the South.

Although she claimed to have no agenda with her project, Welty’s photographs

challenged an understanding of African American life in the South. As Matthew

Martin (2000) argues, the photos gave a ‘‘revelatory glimpse of their humanity and

to suggest the possibility of human love across what might seem uncrossable bound-

aries’’ (p. 25). Although a quick glimpse at Welty’s photographs reveals that this view

on humanity is one of the most prominent aspects of the images, the more important

rhetorical questions that emerge concern how Welty managed to build a shared sense

of humanity through her ‘‘snapshots’’ and how the photos shaped public memory

surrounding the South.

This essay argues that Welty’s photographs contest race in several ways. Her

photographs alter memories of the segregated South by allowing contemporary audi-

ences to gaze upon the Depression-era Southern African American experience and to

have that gaze returned, highlighting positive moments from the segregated South

and emphasizing a shared history. This altered understanding of the South allows

for more possibilities of a shared past and the potential for healing. At the same time,

this alteration is problematic because it undermines the reality of the pain and suf-

fering experienced by African Americans, potentially calling into question actions

intended to atone for past injustices. This essay will explore this argument by discuss-

ing relevant literature before contextualizing the photographs and then analyzing

them. Finally, it will turn to conclusions about Welty’s photos and public memory.

Imaging the Past

A significant amount of literature has explained the importance of rhetoric in

shaping public memory (Biesecker, 2002; Browne, 1995; Hariman & Lucaites,

2003; Phillips, 2004). How we remember our past shapes who we are, how we picture

ourselves, and how we envision the future. In Casey’s (2004) terms, it is both

‘‘attached to a past’’ but also ‘‘acts to ensure a future of further remembering of that

same event’’ (p. 18). This memory can then have an effect on public opinion and

public policy, as well as public perception (see, for example, Biesecker, 2004;

Hariman & Lucaites, 2003; Morris, 2004). As Phillips (2004) writes, ‘‘societies are

both constituted by their memories and, in their daily interactions, rituals, and

exchanges, constitute those memories’’ (p. 2). Consequently, an understanding of

particular public memories and the way that they have been shaped is important.

In particular, this study attends to a visual remembering of the South.

Snapshots of the South 79

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Visual rhetoric can be particularly powerful. Writing about iconic photographs,

Hariman and Lucaites (2003) claim that visual rhetoric can be more powerful than

discursive appeals because images visually represent pain and trauma, thus providing

a stronger moral appeal than words alone. Photography, in particular, shapes our

understanding of the world. Writing about the significance of wilderness photogra-

phy, DeLuca and Demo (2000) argue that the photos do not merely represent nature

but create it. As the authors write, ‘‘The camera is a stunningly effective means to

naturalize reality, to create a world without history and a people without memory . . .photography transforms the world into a series of unrelated, free-standing traces of

reality, events without contexts, moments outside of history and memory’’ (DeLuca

& Demo, 2000, p. 256). When placed within the context of remembering, however,

these ahistorical photographs become fodder for particular narratives.

Because of the persuasive and reality-forming nature of photography, it is not

surprising that photography is an integral part of public memory. As Hariman and

Lucaites (2003) explain:

[O]nce thought to be windows to the real, photographic images become the idealmedium for naturalizing a repressive structure of signs. And there is no doubt thatthey can function that way, as both prized shots and millions of banal, anonymousimages reproduce normative conceptions of gender, race, class, and other forms ofsocial identity. (p. 37)

Thus, photographs become a part of the telling of our history, potentially further

entrenching identities and narratives or challenging them. In fact, Zelizer (2004)

argues that the ‘‘force of the photographic image is derived from its powerful capacity

to represent the real. Often photography aids the recalling of things and events past

so effectively that photographs become the primary makers of memory itself’’

(p. 160). Met with powerful images, we are likely to fold those messages into our

understanding of the past.

There are inherent problems with this process of remembering based on the visual,

however. Images, far from being a neutral medium, are natural conduits for ideological

work, often depicting the ‘‘play of social power in everyday life’’ (Hariman & Lucaites,

2007, p. 9). Consequently, if images are used for the purpose of retelling history, they

may have a damaging effect. As Zelizer (2004) writes, ‘‘difficulties arise when photo-

graphs shape a collective past. At best photographs are arbitrary, composite, conven-

tionalized, and simplified glimpses of the past’’ (p. 160). Consequently, a photograph

may appear to reinforce or challenge our understanding of the past but does so with-

out a connection to reality. In other words, the sense of history derived from photo-

graphs is distorted. Audiences are likely to be persuaded by images, however, because

of the ‘‘window on reality’’ quality. Consequently, images are ripe with rhetorical

meaning and studying that message is an important part of understanding society.

The Great Depression and Segregation

Like many historical images, Welty’s photographs help form an understanding of a

time period. In this case, the photos enter into the Depression-era narrative, telling

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the stories of the segregated American South. The Great Depression hit America with

a tremendous force. As Nick Taylor (2008) writes:

The human toll of the Great Depression of the 1930s is almost impossible for usto fathom . . . . The desolation knew no boundaries: the skilled and the unskilledalike stood on the breadlines, waited their turns in soup kitchens, scavenged intown dumps; when they were evicted from their homes they built impromptushacks to house their families until the police came and knocked the shantytownsdown. (p. 1)

In response, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began to explore major state

programs that would help impoverished families immediately and lead to long-term

economic recovery. The Works Progress Administration, created as a part of the New

Deal economic package, created jobs for thousands of Americans as they participated

in public works projects such as building and road construction as well as art projects.

As part of the larger New Deal program, agencies such as the Resettlement Adminis-

tration, which later became the Farm Security Administration, attempted to docu-

ment not only the effects of poverty on Americans but also the positive effect that

New Deal policies had on the impoverished (Finnegan, 2003). As Cara Finnegan

argues, the 1930s saw an increasing interest in the documentary, with Americans

searching for representations of the ‘‘real’’ American experience. Finnegan writes,

‘‘The camera thus became the tool of those who sought to visualize social facts, to

show the truth of what was happening in the culture’’ (2003, p. xiv). The Farm Secur-

ity Administration photographs of poverty, as seen through Dorothea Lange’s eyes,

among others, provided a glimpse into the invisible world of the rural poor (Finnegan,

2003). Yet, as Finnegan points out, the popular reaction to the photos of ‘‘the other’’

was mixed, with some viewers expressing sympathy, and others a feeling that some of

the poverty was preventable through choices about birth control and hard work (2003,

pp. 18–19).

If the rural White poor were invisible, the African American experience was even

more difficult to access through popular culture. Welty’s photographic eye fell on this

subject primarily because of her interest in her home state of Mississippi and because

of the level of comfort she felt in photographing the subjects. Importantly, Welty’s

photos allowed viewers to see the Black, segregated South. Robert MacNeil (1990),

attempting to explain why Welty would turn her lens to these scenes, explains:

Blacks filled the landscape, of course. Yet for many whites, perhaps for the majorityof whites, blacks were visible but invisible. But why go out of her way in the 1930sto take their pictures? It is difficult to say without sounding unctuous; but theanswer must be that this photographer recognized blacks as human beings andthe circumstances of their lives made her curious. (p. 10)

Welty’s photos not only brought attention to a part of society that was invisible but

emphasized the humanity of the subject in a number of ways.

This action was significant, given the dire situation that African Americans faced

in the South and in Mississippi in particular. To be Black in the American South

during the Jim Crow era was terrifying, but Mississippi was even more segregated

Snapshots of the South 81

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and violent. McMillen (1990) quotes Dr. Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard as

stating, ‘‘You have got to be a black man in Mississippi at least 24 hours to understand

what it means to be a Negro’’ (p. 1). The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction

brought some peace and success to the state’s Black citizens. By the late 1870s, how-

ever, those gains were slowly slipping away. Jim Crow laws began in 1888, Black-owned

businesses were going under, farmland ownership was dropping, and violence against

African Americans was on the rise (Dittmer, 1995). As McMillen argues, however,

segregation was strong in the state long before Jim Crow laws were enacted. In fact,

the state implemented fewer laws because of the segregation custom that had largely

emerged from what McMillen calls radical ‘‘Negrophobia’’ (1990, p. 9).

This strict segregationist society was also quick to turn to violent means to enforce

the division. Lynchings were widespread in the state, accounting for nearly 13% of the

national figure between 1889 and 1945 (McMillen, 1990, p. 229). Over 600 lynchings

were recorded in the state in that general time period (Dittmer, 1995). After 1890,

lynchings became even more brutal, with the victims often being tortured while they

were still alive. Newspaper accounts of lynchings were often replete with gory details,

acting as a strong advisory against all Blacks to stay in their proper places (McMillen,

1990, p. 234). The 1930s saw a brief spike in state lynchings, and in 1935, Mississippi

was responsible for two thirds of the nation’s lynchings (McMillen, 1990, p. 241). In

fact, it was typical in the 1930s to find pro-lynching articles in Mississippi newspapers

(McMillen, 1990). Consequently, when Welty was making her way across the state

snapping her photographs, her subjects were well aware of the expectations for main-

taining boundaries and the consequences of violating those rules.

Welty’s View of the South

Given the historical context for Welty’s photographs, it is remarkable that she was able

to display so openly the South through her lens. Welty was said to have a ‘‘gift of

making people unself-conscious’’ (MacNeil, 1990, p. 7) and was a ‘‘born onlooker’’

(Price, 1989, p. viii). Of course, her gender also positioned her as less threatening than

a White male, with all the historical baggage of slavery and enforcement of Jim Crow

laws. With the access that she gained, Welty’s collection of photos created a feeling of

intimacy, thus giving the viewer a sense of understanding of the subjects. Specifically,

four characteristics made this intimacy possible: the use of the ‘‘snapshot’’ perspective,

the gaze, the use of positive memories, and the emphasis on shared experiences.

Snapshots

One of the most striking characteristics about Welty’s photographs is the naturalness

of the setting. Welty explained that she was merely taking ‘‘snapshots’’ of the South,

never intending the photographs to be professional quality or staged, but rather to

serve as personal photographic evidence of the effects of the Depression. There is

no way to verify the truth of her claim, but the photos can certainly be read as infor-

mal photographs. The settings, for example, are often outdoors, as if Welty stumbled

82 The Southern Communication Journal

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across the subjects. The photos are taken in front of houses, on porches, in front of

churches, on the street, at the state fair—all public locations. The settings for many of

the photographs—the fact that they are all taken outside, in the natural environ-

ment—also appear to signal that Welty was merely wandering through the South

and happening upon individuals. This natural setting allows the viewer to read the

photos as true windows into the South. For example, in one photo titled ‘‘Day’s

End’’ (see Figure 1) an aged African American woman approaches Welty on the side-

walk. Garbed in a simple hat, a fading dress and sweater, a torn apron, and shoes that

are barely held together by threads, the woman gazes directly at Welty, head held

high. The title of the photo, ‘‘Day’s End,’’ and the work clothes indicate that she is

merely passing by the photographer. In fact, there does not appear to be a relation-

ship between photographer and subject.

This ‘‘snapshot’’ theme is more apparent in a set of photographs that places Welty

as the interloper. Wandering through the downtown streets of various Mississippi

towns, Welty stumbles across groups of Black men and women conversing, gazing

into shop windows, laughing at a passing comment, and appearing to flirt. In many

of these photographs, Welty appears to snap her photo without interfering with the

scene. The natural settings and the interloper role that Welty assumes makes her

Figure 1 ‘‘Day’s End=Jackson=1930s.’’ #Eudora Welty, LLC; Eudora Welty Collection—Mississippi Depart-

ment of Archives and History.

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photographs appear to be more realistic images of the South. Because they do not

appear to be posed or staged, the photographs seem to be an authentic view of a

Southern downtown, a neighborhood sidewalk, or a state fair. The photos serve as

‘‘miniatures of reality,’’ in Susan Sontag’s (1977) words, rather than ‘‘statements

about the world’’ (p. 4). Thus, the images that Welty presents influence our under-

standing of what the African American experience was at the time—they ‘‘naturalize

reality,’’ in DeLuca and Demo’s (2000) words.

The Gaze

Another notable characteristic of Welty’s photos is the return of the gaze. Theorists

have commented on the power dynamics involved in observing others (Berger, 1980;

Foucault, 1995). Typically, those in power are able to gaze at the powerless, with the

gaze creating a sense of control. Staring back into the gazer’s eyes, though, is a chal-

lenge to that power dynamic. In fact, Southern codes would have prevented African

Americans from looking directly into Welty’s eyes as they were expected to ‘‘show

deference at every turn’’ (McMillen, 1990, p. 24). Welty, however, portrays several

subjects staring straight into the camera. The result of the photograph is that the sub-

ject appears to stare at the viewer, to challenge the viewer’s right to judge and control.

In another photograph (see Figure 2), a woman stands with her body turned to the

side, glancing back over her shoulder at the camera. Clinging to her back is a small

child who also stares into the lens. Both subjects appear to maintain neutral expres-

sions, neither smiling nor frowning. The woman’s eyes, however, speak volumes as

Figure 2 ‘‘Untitled=Hinds County=1930s.’’ #Eudora Welty, LLC; Eudora Welty Collection—Mississippi

Department of Archives and History.

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they appear bloodshot and wary=weary. Her eyes appear to reflect the hardship that

she more than likely experienced. Although we do not see hardened hands nor torn

and tattered clothes, the woman still appears to be afflicted by worries. The child, in

contrast, looks back at the viewer with an unknowing but curious look. In this case,

the returned gazes seem to challenge the viewer, to question the power dynamic.

A similar photo (see Figure 3) provides a more poignant example. In this snapshot,

Welty focuses her camera on an older woman standing on the outskirts of what

appears to be a farm house. She is dressed in a worn jacket and hat, with holes showing

in the jacket and some of the buttons having popped. The eyes are drawn to her

cracked and worn hand that has fallen to her side, indicating a past filled with challeng-

ing labor. Gazing upon her face, what stands out is the worn look of her skin, her face

and neck wrinkled by age but also by worries and work. Despite signs of a hard life, the

woman stares directly back at the viewer, head held high, hinting at a sense of pride.

As both of these women in the photographs stare back at the camera, they could

have displayed signs of hatred, resentment, blame, or accusation. Instead, both seem

to appear more exhausted than enraged. As Price (1989) notes, Welty’s subjects ‘‘face

her, her eye and the lens, with patent trust’’ (p. viii). That returned gaze extends out

through the photographs, however, and shows a marked pride to a wider audience.

Price writes that Welty ‘‘chose images of courage, persistence and the unslaked thirst

for more of life’’ (1989, p. ix). Although her subjects might not have been able to

Figure 3 ‘‘A Woman of the ‘Thirties=Hinds County=1935.’’#Eudora Welty, LLC; Eudora Welty Collection—

Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Snapshots of the South 85

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express these feelings widely in the segregated South, Welty’s project provided an

alternative medium for this message.

The act of the gaze itself is significant, but it is important to note that the invisi-

bility of the African American experience is also challenged through Welty’s photo-

graphs. The significance of the gaze as portrayed through Welty’s photos is not just in

the virtual eye contact that happens through the experience, but also through the

simple act of looking and potentially creating more understanding. Thus, viewers

appear to receive a more comprehensive understanding of the African American

experience, and this experience has the potential to alter our understanding of the

past. How we remember the past shapes who we are today.

Positive Memories

Welty’s photographs of the South, like the space itself, are largely segregated by race.

Rarely do Black and White subjects appear in the same photograph. A cursory under-

standing of the time period makes it clear that the photographic segregation is a reflec-

tion of the society. Despite this segregation, Welty’s photographs portray subjects who

appear content, proud, even playful and joyous in some settings. Out of the collection

of photographs displayed in the volume that includes the majority of her photographic

works, only one appears to speak directly to the issue of segregation. In that photo-

graph, a Black man walks up to a ticket booth to purchase a movie ticket. Centered

above his head is a sign that reads, ‘‘COLORED ENTRANCE TO ALL PERFOR-

MANCES.’’ Thus, Welty was aware of the issue of segregation and was certainly

encountering this segregation as she made her way around the state snapping photos.

Despite segregation, lynchings, and dire poverty, for the most part Welty’s subjects

appear to be happy. In one striking photo (see Figure 4), a woman sits on a porch

holding a fan in her lap to, no doubt, ward off the Mississippi heat. Behind her, a

quilt hangs from the porch. She is wearing modest clothing, although it is clean

and appears to be free of tears and tattered bits. Perched atop her head is a rounded

straw hat. Her clothes and the background, however, merely serve as backdrops to the

main focus of the image. There are two instances of punctum—the element that

Barthes (1981) notes ‘‘rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and

pierces’’ the viewer (p. 26). First, her hands are in her lap. One is tightly holding

the fan while the other rests. The size and strength of the hands and forearms signal

that this woman has known manual labor. Drawing the eyes up to the face, however,

is a wide, peaceful smile that spreads to her eyes. Her entire face appears to show a

person who is content—even happy. Although her face shows signs of aging and

labor, she displays the kind of joy that seems to define the pursuit of happiness.

Another photo (see Figure 5) shows a woman again sitting on a porch. With a

fedora drawn to her brows and a shadow falling over her eyes, we are only able to

see her smile to determine her emotions. One hand is holding an ice pick and is

directed threateningly at the photographer=viewer. The stark contrast between the

threatening gesture with what might be considered a weapon and the smile on her

face invites the viewer to attempt to explain the situation. The title of the photograph,

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Figure 5 ‘‘Woman with Ice Pick=Hinds County=1930s.’’ #Eudora Welty, LLC; Eudora Welty Collection—

Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Figure 4 ‘‘Hat, Fan, and Quilts=Jackson=1930s.’’#Eudora Welty, LLC; Eudora Welty Collection—Mississippi

Department of Archives and History.

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‘‘Woman with Ice Pick,’’ gives no details, although Welty notes in an interview that

she came across the ‘‘black bootlegger’’ in Utica, Mississippi, who joked, ‘‘I’m gone

kill you’’ (Cole & Srinivasan, 1989, p. xxv). The racial tension that could have been

present in Welty’s photographs seems to be acknowledged in this image. After all,

Welty, a White woman, was traveling the state, breaking segregation expectations,

wandering into Black neighborhoods, and might have encountered some resistance

or even veiled anger. With this photograph, the subject makes light of the tension,

inviting the viewer to feel comfortable gazing upon her segregated world.

With the emphasis on scenes of subjects who are content, playful, and joyous,

Welty’s photographs seem to ease the tension that might appear over viewing images

of the segregated South. Visual displays of anger, pain, and sadness are difficult to con-

sume, making it more troubling for the viewer to connect with the subject and to

understand the reasons behind the emotions. Welty’s photographs are more inviting

than pressing, more subtle than blatant. Viewers are invited to walk with the subjects

through the streets of Mississippi, to sit on the porch for a spell, and to take some time

to reach an understanding of the Black experience. More important, however, is the

viewer’s understanding of this experience. Despite the harshness of the Depression-era

South, viewers are faced with happy, playful subjects. Of course, it should be noted

that the photographic portrayal of happiness might not have accurately reflected even

these individuals’ experiences. What is more telling than the actual experience, in

terms of public memory, is our reading of these images of the past. Fitting these

images into the public memory of the South complicates our understanding of how

one found happiness in the 1930s South as a Black woman.

Shared Experience

One of the most significant aspects of Welty’s photographs is the potential for identi-

fication among viewers. Although Welty wanders into the segregated South, her

camera attempts to break down any barriers that the viewers or the subjects might

have encountered. In Welty’s photographic world, Black subjects stare straight into

the eyes of the gazer, returning the look with pride, joy, laughter, and, sometimes,

wariness. Importantly, the viewer is not confronted with anger, sadness, or accu-

sation. In these photos, we find women who are tired after a long day or a lifetime

of work, who are relaxing after work, who are caring for their children, who are act-

ing in the church community, who are gazing upon the wonders of the Mississippi

State Fair, and who are shopping and flirting. The collection of photographs sends

an overwhelming sense of shared experience. These photographed women represent

many individuals in some ways. Although images of poverty and hard labor challenge

some viewers in finding common ground, the emotions expressed in the images seem

to override those differences. Welty focuses her camera on experiences that could

have been approachable to a wide variety of viewers.

For example, one photograph (see Figure 6) shows a woman on a busy downtown

street. Dressed in a neatly ironed plaid dress, fashionable heels, and a straw hat, the

woman stands in front of a store window, viewing something within the store. One

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hand rests on her chin while the other rests on her hip. At the corner of the window,

we see a hint of a shoe, indicating that apparel is displayed in the window. A few feet

away and reflected in the shop window, a group of Black men stand talking and also

staring into the window. The scene is that of many downtown American streets and

the experiences—those of leisurely conversations and longings for storefront items—are those to which many viewers, regardless of race, class, age, or gender, can relate.

Another example shows three women with their backs to the camera, arms around

each other, and gazing upon a grandiose Ferris wheel (see Figure 7). The title of the

photograph, ‘‘Sideshow Wonders, State Fair,’’ tells the viewer that this is the Missis-

sippi State Fair. Dressed in their ‘‘Sunday best,’’ the women appear to be enjoying the

moment. It is a scene of leisure, of sisterhood, of pleasure. Viewing the photograph,

one can almost hear the screams coming from the Ferris wheel hovering in front of

the women, smell the fair scents wafting from the grounds, and hear the music ema-

nating from the tents. It is a scene reflective of many images throughout America and

one that could be related to on a very personal level.

These are also scenes devoid of any uncomfortable memories of the segregated

South. In these photographs, the subjects appear to be enjoying the moment free

of any restraints on where they could be, who they could mingle with, and how they

Figure 6 ‘‘Window Shopping=Grenada=1930s.’’ #Eudora Welty, LLC; Eudora Welty Collection—Mississippi

Department of Archives and History.

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were expected to act. The photographs allow the viewer to reflect back on a South

that was unmarred by vicious racism and violence and was marked, instead, by a

shared sense of leisure and simplicity.

Thus, the photographs create a sense of identification through shared experiences

and emotions. The selection of, in particular, pleasurable scenes allows for this identi-

fication to emerge. The selection of Black women as subjects also plays into the

welcoming nature of the photographs. After all, Black men were still plagued with

the image of savagery and, thus, present more of a threat to White viewers (see, for

example, Davis, 1981). Moreover, Welty, as a woman, was likely afforded more of

an opportunity to delve into the Black experience. Her presence was, likewise, not

as threatening. Welty’s photographic depiction of the pedestrian African American

experience in the South, then, appeared to be intimate and realistic. It provided a

seemingly true glimpse at the experience and presented the viewer with opportunities

to dwell on similarities between the portrayed experiences and their own.

Conclusions

Public memory is formed and reformed in a number of ways. As rhetorical scholars

have argued, however, photographic images of the past play a significant role in that

process (Zelizer, 2004). Accounting for the power of our photographic history, then,

is an important part of better understanding our public memory. Welty’s photos

provide valuable insight into the shaping of public memory surrounding the African

American experience and the South.

When Welty wandered through Mississippi streets, she was seeing the results of a

long history of segregation. Her photographs, consequently, ran counter to other

Figure 7 ‘‘Sideshow Wonders, State Fair=Jackson=1939.’’ #Eudora Welty, LLC; Eudora Welty Collection—

Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

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popular images of the South. At the time that the photos were taken, Welty was an

unknown Southern woman struggling to carve out a career. Her photographs were

taken in obscurity and were initially received as such. The returned gaze—the

opportunity for the Black subjects to stare back into the eyes of the viewers—allowed

for an important symbolic breaking down of segregation barriers. Not only were the

subjects of the photos empowered by being able to return the gaze but White viewers

were challenged to meet those eyes and accept the reality that faced them. Welty’s

emphasis on positive emotions, the portrayal of pride, hope, and joy, provided a

nonthreatening quality that then invited viewers to accept the final element of an

emphasis on shared experiences. Welty’s photos served as a strong argument against

the institutional and cultural barriers that affected African Americans in the

Depression-era South. Because segregation was largely supported at that time, both

legally and culturally, Welty’s photos could have served an important role in attempt-

ing to alter public perceptions of the African American experience and African

Americans had they received a wider audience.

More importantly, though, the photographs appear to alter subtly public memory

surrounding the South. As Davi Johnson (2007) writes, ‘‘Photographs can be epipha-

nic, forcing a psychic transformation of the citizenry by rupturing imagined concep-

tions of identity’’ (p. 8). Because the photographs appear to serve as documentary

evidence, the message that is contained within the photos is potentially more powerful

in shifting our understanding of the Black Southern experience. Whether receiving the

photographs as a White or Black Southerner or as someone not associated with the

South, there are implications for how individuals see themselves and others. Through

a sense of identification—showing more of a shared past for both Black and White

viewers or even contemporary Black viewers and the Black subjects in the photo-

graphs—Welty’s photographs have the potential to act as a salve on the wounds

inflicted by segregation. What slavery and segregation did to create a divide between

Southerners, a shared sense of identification created through photographic memory

makes some progress in mending that divide.

Welty’s insightful and poignant photographs serve, in many ways, as a celebration

of the strength and courage of the Black women who are portrayed in those frames.

The images of pride, hope, and joy send a message that humans can endure great pain

and injustice and still survive or even prosper in their own ways. At the same time,

this celebratory aspect of the images, and one that the South would certainly embrace

while searching for ways to recover from its blighted history, also has the potential to

veil painful memories of this time period. The images erase the pain and suffering

and the division and humiliation that accompanied this segregation. Lurking behind

those proud eyes are the memories of the back-breaking work that caused the hands

to be callused. The street scenes that Welty portrayed were not marred by the

‘‘Whites Only’’ signs or the forced deference that might have been expected had a

White passer-by entered onto the street. As Zelizer (2004) argues, images of the past

are somewhat arbitrary and, consequently, can have a misleading effect on our public

memory. Thus, while Welty portrayed ‘‘real’’ images of the African American experi-

ence, the photos are somewhat misleading in what they leave out of the frame.

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Welty’s contested images of race are complex. Her work is to be celebrated for

breaking down walls of segregation symbolically. At the same time, it is important

to remember that public memory surrounding the Black experience in the South

must include not only images of hope and survival but also brutal violence, humili-

ation, and gross injustice.

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