Greenwood, Mississippi captured my heart the first time I visited it a little over four years ago. As I pulled over the bridge into the heart of downtown, I found quiet streets, well maintained historic buildings, wonderful restaurants steeped in tradition and some of the friendliest people in the world. Since that first visit, I’ve returned as often as I could, sometimes just to enjoy a nice meal, wander the beautiful downtown area and sit by the river and read my book. There are even speakers on the streets around town providing a soundtrack to the city, something I always forget until I’m there and then it has me grinning from ear to ear. Greenwood is called the Gateway to the Delta, and is truly one of the nicest towns not just in Mississippi, but in the entire South.
The land on which the city of Greenwood now sits was once Choctaw Indian land, but was ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830. The Chief of the Choctaw at that time was Greenwood LeFlore, from whom the town would take its name. Greenwood would become prosperous as a shipping town, transporting cotton to markets in St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans. When the railroad came through in the 1880s, it would cement Greenwood as a transportation hub and a cotton center of the region for years to come. Today, Greenwood is home to the Viking Range Corporation, a major employer in the city. Viking has done a great job of utilizing many of the historic buildings in town instead of knocking them down and building new ones, leaving the downtown area’s historic charm intact. The 2011 film The Help was filmed in Greenwood, as was the 1991 Denzel Washington movie Mississippi Masala. I’m surprised more movies haven’t been filmed here as it really is a quintessential small Southern city…
Happy Valentine’s Day y’all. Today I wanted to share with you a beautiful if tragic love story from the tiny town of Kosciusko, Mississippi. To my understanding, Laura Van Mitchell was born in Mississippi in 1852. In her late teens she married Clement Clay Kelly, a banker and businessman from Kosciusko who was seven years her senior. Clay, as he was called, was the owner and president of C.C. Kelly Banking Company which was the last private bank in Attala County (the bank would eventually go under, on Valentines Day in 1914). Laura and Clay were happy together and had five children: Lillian, Samuel, Otho, Alta and Leland. The couple were building a beautiful new Victorian home for their family at 309 East Jefferson Street when Laura, at only 38 years old, passed away in 1890.
Heartbroken, Clay wanted to build a lasting monument to his beautiful wife. He commissioned an Italian sculptor to create a likeness of her and sent photos and even her beautiful Victorian wedding gown for the sculptor to work with . The resulting statue, which has stood watch over Laura’s grave for over 130 years, is truly stunning. Clay then instructed his builders to add a third story to his new house so that he could see the statue of his lovely wife from his window.
West Point, Mississippi is a pleasant, medium sized town in Clay County in the east-central part of the state. Perhaps best known as the hometown of legendary bluesman Chester “Howlin’ Wolf” Burnett, I found it to be a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. There are some beautiful old buildings, some delightful parks and some wonderful murals and artwork, all packed into a compact and walkable downtown area. Originally home to Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, the French, Spanish and British also vied for control of the region. The town itself was originally laid out as a railroad town when the Mobile and Ohio Line came through in 1858. It would grow as part of the state’s Black Belt as cotton production became Alabama’s main industry. While I couldn’t find the origin of the name West Point (interesting to me because it’s in the east of the state), Clay County was named for the Great Compromiser, Kentucky’s Henry Clay. Because of the railroad, West Point was a strategic target during the Civil War, although the only real skirmish was a small one and occurred in 1864. November 2nd, 1909 was an exciting day in town when President William Howard Taft’s train pulled into the station and he addressed the townspeople from his rail car before heading on to Columbus.
When I visited West Point, I sadly found the Howlin’ Wolf Museum closed. While I waited for a call back from the man who runs it, I grabbed my camera and went for a wander. While I was there, the clouds cleared and I found a wonderful, clean, well-kept downtown with a distinctly small-town feel to it. I loved the City Hall building, City Park, the town’s stoic churches, the old Ritz Theater, some beautiful art projects scattered around town and some really cute small businesses on Main and Commerce Streets. While I never did get into the museum (they’re building a new one in a vacant storefront on Commerce Street), I’m still glad I stopped. There wasn’t much going on when I was there, and I was okay with that. A beautiful town on a sunny day is always something to write home about. Thanks for a wonderful visit, West Point; I hope to be back when the new museum is open for business.
The Corinth Contraband Camp was established in the wake of the Battle of Shiloh and the subsequent occupation of Corinth by the Union Army. Enslaved people in the area fled behind Union lines, seeking safety from their masters with the Union Army. The army saw the strategic value in providing these people a safe haven. The former slaves were put to work to aid the war effort, and were paid for their time and allowed to pursue an education with missionaries who came from the North. They built homes and gardens for food and even planted cotton to aid the Union Army. Many young men who made their way to the camp enlisted in the army – first used as cooks and laborers and later armed as the 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment of African Decent (later the 55th U.S. Colored Troops). These troops were used in combat at Brices Crossroads and Waterford in 1864. The camp was a model for others of its kind springing up across the South. It was the first step for these people on their road to freedom. More than 6,000 people passed through the Corinth Contraband Camp during the year it was operational. The camp was abandoned in 1864 as Union efforts consolidated in Memphis, and not much remains there today. The open site is part of Shiloh National Battlefield, and the wonderful sculptures in these photographs were produced by Larry Lugar, a sculptor from nearby Memphis. I think they are wonderful depictions and show the determination these newly freed people showed under adverse conditions during their time there. It might not have been paradise, but for the first time in any of their lives, they were free.
During my month in Hawaii I visited Oahu twice, but only for a total of four days. I enjoyed a lot of the historic buildings in Honolulu, especially Iolani Palace. Pearl Harbor was fascinating and heartbreaking, the North Shore was full of amazing scenery and cool places to stop and poke around, and Waikiki had a beautiful beach and some wonderful recreational opportunities and nightlife. It was always hectic when I was there as I was running around trying to get trips started and dealing with taxis and rental cars, but when I finally had a little bit of time and space to breath, I really enjoyed my brief visit to Oahu. Although I didn’t have time to take a lot of photos there, I quite like some that I did take. I hope you do too.
I’ve had an amazing month in Alabama, and these are the very best photos from my trip. I started my journey on beautiful Dauphin Island right on the Gulf of Mexico, traveled through the shrimping town of Bayou La Batre, and then made my way north into the stunning city of Mobile. From there, I dropped down to Gulf Shores and then out to Dothan in the southeast corner of the state. I traveled up the east coast to charming Eufaula and then through breezy Tuskegee to the State Capital in Montgomery. I made my way out to fascinating Selma and then on to tiny Demopolis in the west. From there I headed northeast through Tuscaloosa, Bessemer and Birmingham before zigzagging back west into The Shoals region. Finally, I made my way across the north through Huntsville before dropping south to Gadsden and Anniston and then north again through Fort Payne and Little River Canyon on my way out of the state. Alabama has so much to offer from history to natural beauty to clean and beautiful small towns and cities. The tragic history surrounding slavery and civil rights is not hidden away, but right in plain view and interpreted thoroughly and honestly. I found wonderful and welcoming people everywhere I went, and of course enjoyed some fantastic food and music as I’ve come to expect from the South. It was an incredible month, and my camera was very busy throughout. I hope you enjoy this “Best of Alabama” photo gallery as I take you along for one final romp through the Heart of Dixie.
Florence, Alabama is a really neat little city in the far northwest corner of the state. It is part of a region referred to collectively as The Shoals, which includes the towns of Muscle Shoals, Tuscumbia and Sheffield. Florence sits right on the Tennessee River, and was named for the city in Italy by the Italian surveyor who helped lay out the original plan. Florence is the hometown of both W.C. Handy and Sam Phillips, so musical traditions run deep in the area. In fact, it seemed like the arts were well represented in general there as is displayed by the beautiful street art you’ll see in this post. During my visit I also caught a wonderful performance of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at the beautiful Shoals Theater, right in the heart of town. I really enjoyed wandering the streets of Florence and spending some time in the riverfront McFarland Park. While I spent my days touring nearby FAME Recording Studio, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and the birthplace of Helen Keller, I kept finding myself drawn back across the river in the evening to experience all this town had to offer, from nice restaurants to some cool live music venues. While there is so much to see and do in this part of Alabama, be sure to save some time for a stroll around downtown Florence, “Alabama’s Renaissance City”. You’ll be glad you did.
Pulling into downtown Dothan, Alabama, I had no idea what to expect from it. I knew it was the seventh largest city in Alabama, and the “Hub of the Wiregrass” - a region which covers southeast Alabama, southwest Georgia and parts of the Florida panhandle. Other than that I was pretty much going in blind. What I found was a pleasant city with a compact downtown full of beautiful murals and statues. Dothan has an excellent art museum, a gorgeous opera house, and some wonderful cafes and restaurants all within just a few blocks of each other. It was a quiet and pleasurable place for a stroll, and I had a beautiful day to do just that. I spent several hours photographing this beautiful city, and you can see the results in this post. I really enjoyed my time in Dothan and I’m already looking forward to my next visit. If you’re ever in southeast Alabama, be sure you stop in and say ‘hello’ - you will definitely be surprised by what you find here.
Mobile, Alabama is truly one of the most beautiful cities in America. With a population hovering around 200,000, Mobile is large enough to feel like a big city, but small enough not to lose its charm. The downtown area is a colorful mixture of old and new, classic and modern, ornate and utilitarian. It seemed that each time I turned a corner, I found a scene which I just had to capture on film, and I spent three days doing just that. This post will show you the results and, I hope, the many different faces of Mobile. It is a city whose history stretches back over 300 years and yet is full of modern touches and recent additions which seem to add to, instead of detract from, that history. Still, the one characteristic of Mobile which stood head and shoulders above the rest is the one which cannot be captured on film: the kindness and friendliness of its people. I hadn’t been to Mobile in several years and was happy to find it as welcoming as ever. I must admit I was charmed by The Port City. I left a little bit of my heart there and can’t wait to go back and find it.
Out on the prairie in the heart of Acadiana sits the tiny old railroad town of Rayne, Louisiana. Originally called Pouppeville, the citizens decided to rename their town Rayne in honor of the engineer who laid the tracks. In the early 1900’s, three brothers started a frog leg business, shipping frog legs all over the country, and Rayne got a reputation as the Frog Capital of the World. They truly have run with their nickname and frogs are everywhere you look in this quiet little town. They even host a Frog Festival every May! I loved walking the streets and taking these photos, and this post is just a sampling of all the frogs to be found in Rayne. They made me smile and reminded me that life is too short to take too seriously. How can you take things too seriously when you are constantly surrounded by frogs? Kudos to the citizens of Rayne for keeping their sense of humor and bringing a lot of joy to their town streets. Your town made me want to jump for joy!
Just off of the infamous Highway 61 near Zachary, Louisiana, you turn off on a dirt road and find yourself standing outside of Teddy’s Juke Joint. It’s hard to imagine you’re only 15 minutes from downtown Baton Rouge, because it feels a world apart. As you approach the front door, you may wonder if it’s open, but I promise you it is - every night of the week. As soon as you open that door, though, be prepared to be transported to a different time and a different world. Much like stepping into a music lover’s version of Narnia, Teddy’s is a whirlwind of colorful lights and amazing sounds. It’s what I would imagine it would be like inside of a kaleidoscope. As wonderful as this place appears at first glance, the real magic has yet to happen. Teddy and his wife Nancy have been running this joint for over 40 years, and they are some of the most hospitable and wonderful people you’re likely to meet - just good people all around. Pull up a seat at the bar and order a drink and you’ll soon find your feet tapping along with the beat and your face smiling from ear to ear. Teddy spins the records and Nancy pours the drinks, and together they manage to keep the place spotless and running smoothly, with a little help from their friends on the weekend. Speaking of the weekend, that’s an ideal time to come to Teddy’s as there are frequently live bands and jam sessions, but any night of the week your ears will be treated to great blues, soul, and an occasional slip into rock and roll. If you’re hungry, they’ll whip you up a pork chop sandwich or some red beans and rice with their own secret blend of seasoning. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting all of the remaining true Southern juke joints over the last decade, and Teddy’s is definitely my favorite. It’s the southernmost juke joint on Highway 61, and the only one that’s open 7 days a week. Whenever I’m anywhere near Baton Rouge, I find my steering wheel pulling me towards Teddy’s, even if it’s just to stop in and say hi. I know I’ll find some good conversation, a hot meal, a cold beer and great music. Yep, Teddy’s is a lot like coming home…
There are a LOT of photos in this post. Mardi Gras parades in Louisiana are some of the most vivid, colorful, vibrant, sensory overloading events in the whole world. The colors, the costumes, the floats, the music and the excitement are all overwhelming. They are joyful and happy events marking the biggest celebration of the year in the state. Photographing them is a true joy, and all of these photos make me extremely happy. In these photos I want to show you the floats, the riders, the spectators, the bands and walking groups that make up the Mardi Gras parades. There are also a few of my favorite kind of Mardi Gras shot - trying to capture beads in mid-air between thrower and catcher. There are six parades featured in this post. The first is the Krewe of Slidellians from Slidell, Louisiana. The following night parade is from the Krewe of Rio in Lafayette. The next daytime parades were the Krewe of Carrolton followed by the Krewe of King Arthur on the same day taken from Lee Circle in New Orleans. There are two photos from the Krewe of Nyx nighttime parade in New Orleans, and finally are a few from the huge Spanish Town parade in Baton Rouge, the pinkest event I’ve ever witnessed. I know there are probably too many photos for one post here, but it was hard to cut it down to just the ones I included. I hope you enjoy them and I hope you can feel the excitement and happiness I tried to capture here. More than anything, I hope they make you smile.
