Music makers make good photographs, too

by Randy Hamilton, Durham Photography Examiner

Opinions vary about what constitutes a good photographic portrait: Color or black and white? Studio or in situ? Neutral or natural background? Full or three-quarter view? Etc., etc. Regardless of such factors, most will readily agree that the best portraits reveal some essence of the subject. Jimmy Williams’s series, “Music Makers,” now on display at the Durham Art Guild, does exactly that.

The music makers of the title are those who have helped define the grassroots of Southern music, especially the blues. These all-but-forgotten pioneers are supported by the Music Makers Relief Foundation of Hillsborough, dedicated to their financial support and to the preservation of their musical legacy. When Williams discovered the organization and its charges, he set out to document them in portraiture, starting with those residing in North Carolina.

These pictures at once reveal the culture from which they emerged and in which they continue to live and perform, while showing the color of their music and the dignity with which most still struggle for subsistence. Yet as blue as we might assume their lives to be, all of them are anything but cheerless.

The majority of these portraits are in color, but the featured portrait, of Hillsborough native and Durham resident John Dee Holeman, is in black and white, in tones as rich as any of the others. And that is saying something. Each one seems a perfectly made composition, from the view of the subject to just the right setting for each to the sharp clarity of every image. One struggles to find anything in the entire exhibit that might be judged a flaw.

Even those less familiar with this music will recognize the names of at least some of Williams’s the subjects, including Skeeter Brandon and Cool John Ferguson, whom Taj Mahal once called “one of the five greatest guitarists in the world.”

“Music Makers” is on display through June 27th at the Durham Art Guild. You can see some (but not all) of the exhibit photographs, and many other works, on Jimmy Williams’s web site. Williams also presents a slideshow of the series, which he narrates himself, and his web site has a section with samples of the music of some of his subjects. You can learn more about the musicians and the Music Maker project, and you can purchase music, at musicmaker.org.

And while you’re at the Durham Art Guild, be sure to take a moment to view the work of Durham Public School Teacher Artists, which includes several photographs.

Source: Raleigh Examiner