| Maker(s): | Christenberry, William
| | Culture: | American (1936 - )
| | Title: | 5¢, Demopolis, Alabama
| | Date Made: | 1977
| | Type: | Photograph
| | Materials: | Ektacolor print
| | Place Made: | United States; Alabama
| | Measurements: | sheet: 8 x 10 in.; 20.32 x 25.4 cm; image: 3 3/8 x 4 7/8 in.; 8.5725 x 12.3825 cm
| | Narrative Inscription: | signed, verso in black ink: William Christenberry, dated and inscribed verso in black ink: 5c [cent sign], DEMOPOLIS, ALABAMA 1976, 3/12
| | Accession Number: | SC 1988.45.2
| | Credit Line: | Purchased with the gift of the Smith College Museum of Art Visiting Committee in honor of Charles Chetham
| | Museum Collection: | Smith College Museum of Art
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Label Text:
Wiliam Christenberry’s work explores his home state of Alabama. His photographs, paintings, and sculptures are attempts to capture the evolution
and decay of this southern landscape through seemingly abandoned buildings, old barns, and antiquated signage. The subjects may be commonplace, but Christenberry’s work is deeply personal; it is about coming to terms with the changing landscape of his childhood in Hale County, Alabama.
The painted brick wall of this photograph emanates nostalgia. Every detail speaks to what it once was. These colors, now faded, used to be rich hues of blue and yellow. The vines were once trimmed and Coca Cola was five cents a bottle, as seen in a larger photograph of the same wall. The moment Christenberry has captured does not show the wall when it was first painted, but rather exposes the backward glance of a man reliving his childhood as reflected in a dilapidated brick building.
Christenberry took this picture with a Kodak Brownie camera, the first widely available color camera. Christenberry received this camera as a gift when he was a child, and used it thirty-plus years later to record his home’s shifting landscape. Christenberry’s work addresses change and memory.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1988.45.2 |
