An exhibition of photographs taken by acclaimed Mississippi author Eudora Welty is on display throughout November and December at Hinds Community College’s McLendon Library on the Raymond Campus.
Welty once worked as a junior publicity agent for the Roosevelt depression-era Works Progress Administration. The WPA, as it was known, helped millions of unemployed Americans with steady employment.
For a year Welty traveled extensively across Mississippi taking hundreds of photos of her native state. Hinds is hosting two exhibits on Eudora Welty’s WPA experience – “Welty” and “Eudora Welty: Other Places.”
The “Welty” exhibit contains 14 photographs taking during her Mississippi travels. The photos are juxtaposed with passages from her books “The Wide Net,” “Delta Wedding,” “The Golden Apples,” “A Curtain of Green” and “Some Notes on River Country” to show the relationship between her source material and her writing.
“Eudora Welty: Other Places” presents 22 photographs taken by Welty during her WPA travels to New Orleans and New York City from 1936 to 1939. Welty sought out less commonplace subjects in New Orleans and New York taking casual, mostly unposed snapshots. In New York, she photographed the shadows and patterns of light on the elevated subway, the street over which it loomed and groups of unemployed men gathering to hear speeches and wait for jobs.
The two exhibits are on loan from Mississippi Department of Archives and History and are available for viewing at the Hinds Raymond Library during open hours Monday-Thursday, 7:45 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday, 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. The library is closed Thanksgiving week.
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As Mississippi’s largest community college, Hinds Community College is a comprehensive institution offering quality, affordable educational opportunities with more than 170 academic, career and technical programs. With six locations in central Mississippi, Hinds enrolled nearly 12,000 credit students in fall 2014. To learn more, visit www.hindscc.edu or call 1.800.HindsCC.