Artist Entry: William Christenberry

Bibb County Glades with Little Cahaba River Below, December

Cahaba Lillies in Bloom, June

Stone Beach, Cahaba River, August

Cahaba River, August

Cahaba River, Winter Day, December

Bibb County Glades, Rainy Day, June (No.2)

I have heard of William Christenberry before, but only really knew about his rural landscapes until I went to the library and checked out the book “In Response to Place”. The book is a collection of works from various artists, including William Wegman, Annie Leibovitz, and Sally Mann. The original form of this book was an exhibition entitled “In Response to Place: Photographs from The Nature Conservancy’s Last Great Places”. I found Christenberry’s work, “Cahaba River” and “Bibb County Glades” to be of particular interest to me, as it was an investigation of one particular river. I also really liked the fact that Christenberry’s photographs were working hand-in-hand by raising awareness of The Nature Conservancy and the Cahaba River Society to reduce the farmland erosion and polluted runoff from upstream suburban sprawl.

Biography

William Christenberry was born November 5, 1936. He has been described as a photographer, painter, and sculptor who works with “personal and somewhat mythical themes growing out of his childhood experiences in Hale County, Alabama”.  After graduating from the University of Alabama he moved to New York City where he started an almost immediately rewarding artistic career. It was in NYC where he found the 1941 book, “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” that showcased Walker Evans’ photographs of poor farming families in Hale County during the Great Depression. He then began to visit his extended family in rural Hale County, first shooting with a Kodak Brownie and eventually moving to large format.

Jobey, Liz. "William Christenberry: Working From Memory." The Guardian, November 20, 2008.

Quotes

“All of my work – whether painting, sculpture, or photography – deals with my affection for the place I am from, Alabama. More and more, I have been focusing on the open landscape, with little man-made on it. Once I heard about the Bibb County Glades, I knew I had to go there. Back home in Tuscaloosa, where I am from, we have the Black Warrior River, which is sluggish and abused though still beautiful in parts. But it is not a flat, fast-moving river like the Little Cahaba. The glades are quite special, yet people will say of such a place, “What do you see here?” But to me, it’s not so much what you see as what you feel about the place – its age, its openness, the Native Americans who once knew the place. It’s that feeling that you hope will come through the camera and through you as the photographer. Whenever someone asks why I always photograph in Alabama, I have to answer that, yes, I know there are other places, but Alabama is where my heart is. It’s what I really care about”. 

“What I feel really strongly about, and I hope reflects in all aspects of my work, is the human touch, the humanness of things, the positive and sometimes the negative and sometimes the sad”. 

"Christenberry Photos Capture the Changing South." All Things Considered. NPR: 03 Aug 2006. Radio. 24 Oct 2011. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5613101>.

Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/books/review/Woodward.t.html

Interview:  http://www.americansuburbx.com/2010/02/theory-muse-of-place-and-time-interview.html

Gallery: http://www.ggibsongallery.com/artists/christenberry/index.html (this is one of the many galleries that represent some of Christenberry’s vast amount of photographic work)

Website: http://www.christenberryonline.com/ (it seems to be his professional website, but it hasn’t been updated since 2006. He is an older, established artist, so maybe this platform isn’t very important to him)