Exhibitions

TEMA STAUFFER: SOUTHERN FICTION

Reece Museum (ETSU) / 363 Stout Dr., Johnson City, TN January 13, 2023 - March 1, 2023

Tema Stauffer

Southern Fiction explores the history of the American South using its literary tradition as a road map, focusing on environments which have shaped the imaginations of 20th-century Southern writers during their formative years or throughout the course of their lives and careers. The images portray domestic settings, vernacular architecture, and rural landscapes that visually resonate with the history, culture, and atmosphere of the Deep South.

Tema Stauffer is a photographer whose work examines the social, economic, and cultural landscape of American spaces. She is currently an Associate Professor of Photography at East Tennessee State University. From 2018 - 2021, Stauffer made road trips to Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to shoot large-format color photographs of settings associated with writers such as Flannery O’Connor, Alice Walker, Truman Capote, Harper Lee, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, and Richard Wright. The series depicts the former homes of some of these writers, sites that were relevant to their backgrounds and literary works, and the surrounding architecture and landscapes that shaped their fiction. By examining the roots of its greatest writers, the series investigates the richness and complexity of the South through the evocative settings that defined their experiences and voices.