The Journal of Southern History has published a wonderful review of Of the Soil: Photographs of Vernacular Architecture and Stories of Changing Times in Arkansas by Geoff Winningham.
Of the Soil: Photographs of Vernacular Architecture and Stories of Changing Times in Arkansas is a fine book—thoughtfully organized, handsomely designed, and with excellent tritone reproductions. While not remarkably original, Winningham’s work lies squarely within one of America’s proudest photographic traditions: Walker Evans’s images of the rural South, along with those of William Christenberry, come most readily to mind.
One potential flaw of projects like this is a descent into mindless nostalgia. Happily, Winningham avoids this. While one senses some of his photographs are tinged with regret, he never allows himself to voice it in any literal way. “This is what pieces of an older world looked like thirty years ago,” he seems to say. “Things have changed since then. Make of that what you will.”
—David Wharton, University of Mississippi (JOSH, May 2015)
