
An exhibition celebrating the ever-changing American South through the lenses of more than 60 diverse photographers is on view now at the Figge Art Museum.

“Reckonings and Reconstructions: Southern Photography from the Do Good Fund” surveys that fund’s “sweeping photography collection to tease apart the tangled cultural memory of the American South,” the Figge said in a news release.
The exhibit at the museum at 225 W. Second St., Davenport, runs through Sunday, Sept. 8.
The show features 102 photographs. They are by 61 artists of different genders, races, ethnicity, and geography. They range from emerging artists to Guggenheim Fellows. Their work testifies to the fund’s support in recent years of young photographers and artists of color.
Included are works by renowned photographers. They include Debbie Fleming Caffery, Rosalind Fox Solomon, Shelby Lee Adams, Sheila Pree Bright, William Christenberry, Chandra McCormick and Gordon Parks.
Life in the South explored
The exhibition explores life in the South, unfolding with themes of land, labor, law and protest, food, ritual and kinship, the release said. The themes reflect “the South’s history where despair and hope, terror and beauty, pain and joy and indignity and dignity commingle. Together these images present the changing nature of the South and its people, highlighting efforts for renewal and the community’s shared experiences.”
The exhibit provides a scholarly investigation of southern photography since World War II. Images serve as a reckoning with the past and a vision for future restoration and repair. The photos confront history and emphasize the need for change, the museum said.
“This exhibition offers a profound exploration of Southern culture and heritage, capturing the complexity and resilience of the region and its people,” said Figge Senior Co-Curator Vanessa Sage. “These powerful images reflect on historical legacies and envision a future defined by healing and community.”
It was organized by the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia. The exhibition program is supported, in part, by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.
Reckonings and Reconstructions is locally sponsored by The Brian Pasierb Family Foundation, Carolyn Levine & Leonard Kallio Trust, and KLJB FOX 18.