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Current Exhibitions

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A woman's teary eye is seen through a movie camera's screen.

Our Strange New Land: Photographs by Alex Harris

On view through May 3, 2020

Tickets

The American South has become a nexus of film production in the United States. By 2016, more major features were being shot in Georgia than in California. Alex Harris (American, born 1949) began photographing this wave of filmmaking, focusing his attention on independent productions that were under way from Louisiana to Virginia. Our collective idea of the South has largely been shaped by great storytellers—whether novelists, musicians, or photographers—who endeavored to articulate the layered character of this strange land.

In addition to over 65 prints, the exhibition includes a three-channel video piece composed from numerous stills Harris created on set, which evokes the emotional range and complex narrative techniques employed by the filmmakers he worked with. He intentionally sequenced the resulting images, pairing them with a newly commissioned score, to draw out the recurring themes prevalent in recent popular cinema.

Our Strange New Land: Photographs by Alex Harris is the latest chapter in the ongoing Picturing the South project, for which the High Museum commissions artists to create original bodies of work that offer new perspectives on the South’s social and geographical landscapes.

  • A spotlight casts its light into the night sky.

    Abducted, Waxhaw, North Carolina, 2018

    High Museum of Art, Atlanta, commissioned with funds from the H.B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust and the Picturing the South Fund, 2015.471

  • White sheets hang out to dry underneath a dramatic cloudy sky.

    Liberty, Miami, Florida, 2018

    High Museum of Art, Atlanta, commissioned with funds from the H.B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust and the Picturing the South Fund, 2015.469

  • A woman with pink hair smokes a cigarette on a back porch at night.

    And the People Could Fly, Columbia, South Carolina, 2018

    High Museum of Art, Atlanta, commissioned with funds from the H.B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust and the Picturing the South Fund, 2015.473

  • Actors dressed as policemen yell at each other from close range.

    Thunder Road, Austin, Texas, 2017

    High Museum of Art, Atlanta, commissioned with funds from the H.B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust and the Picturing the South Fund, 2015.474

  • A young boy dances perched in the trunk of a tree.

    Liberty, Miami, Florida, 2018

    High Museum of Art, Atlanta, commissioned with funds from the H.B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust and the Picturing the South Fund, 2015.476

  • Sunlight filters through misty air over a field with rolls of hay.

    Doodle, Buhl, Alabama, 2018

  • An actor in overalls stands next to a coffin in the road.

    The Funeral Band, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2018

    High Museum of Art, Atlanta, commissioned with funds from the H.B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust and the Picturing the South Fund, 2015.477

  • A young boy opens a freezer with magnets and papers on it.

    The Astronomers, Rock Hill, South Carolina, 2018

  • A cameraman follows a man walking with a boombox on his shoulder.

    Handsome, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2018

  • A film crew work on a red ladder next to a church.

    Miner’s Mountain, Wilmington, North Carolina, 2017

  • Greener Grass, Gay, Georgia, 2018

  • Many hands work to braid the hair of a young girl.

    Liberty, Miami, Florida, 2018

    • A spotlight casts its light into the night sky.
    White sheets hang out to dry underneath a dramatic cloudy sky.
    A woman with pink hair smokes a cigarette on a back porch at night.
    Actors dressed as policemen yell at each other from close range.
    A young boy dances perched in the trunk of a tree.
    Sunlight filters through misty air over a field with rolls of hay.
    An actor in overalls stands next to a coffin in the road.
    A young boy opens a freezer with magnets and papers on it.
    A cameraman follows a man walking with a boombox on his shoulder.
    A film crew work on a red ladder next to a church.
    Many hands work to braid the hair of a young girl.

    “We are all actors in our own lives, creating our sets, practicing our lines, refining our characters, performing ourselves.” –Alex Harris

    About Alex Harris

    For over forty years, Alex Harris has chronicled the lives of people throughout the world, photographing in locations as disparate as the Inuit villages of Alaska, the streets of Havana, the fish markets of Mumbai, and the farms of North Carolina. His interest in film production began in 2007 when he was invited to photograph on the set of Steven Soderbergh’s biopic Che, which was shot on location in Mexico.

    In addition to his work as a photographer, Harris is a highly regarded educator and has taught since 1980 at Duke University, where he co-founded the Center for Documentary Studies in 1989. He is also an active editor and curator who has published sixteen books and curated numerous exhibitions. In 1995 he co-founded the magazine DoubleTake, which he edited until 1998.

    Press

    The New Yorker | “Finding Truth and Fiction on Film Sets in the South”
    Oxford American     | “Behind the Lens”
    Atlanta Journal Constitution | “The South as it’s seen in film the focus of Alex Harris’s photographs”
    Artdaily.com | “High Museum debuts Alex Harris photography featuring southern film sets”
    Atlanta Journal Constitution | “Seeing the South as the moviemakers see it”
    Oxford American | “Eyes on the South: On Set”
    Buzzfeed | “7 Photo Stories That Will Challenge Your View of the World”
    Juxtapoz | “Our Strange New Land: Photographs by Alex Harris”
    Arts ATL | “Review: At High, Alex Harris’ photographs take a crack at catching ever-evolving South”
    GPB, “On Second Thought” | “‘Picturing the South’: Photographer Alex Harris Documents Southern Film Industry for High Museum”

    Related

    Organization and Support

    This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

    This exhibition is made possible by

    Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor

    Delta logo.
    Invesco logo.

    Exhibition Series Sponsors

    Northside Hospital logo.

    Warner Media logo.

    Premier Exhibition Series Supporters
    The Antinori Foundation
    Sarah and Jim Kennedy
    Louise Sams and Jerome Grilhot
    wish Foundation logo.

    Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporter
    Anne Cox Chambers Foundation

    Ambassador Exhibition Supporters
    Tom and Susan Wardell
    Rod Westmoreland

    Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters
    Lucinda W. Bunnen
    Marcia and John Donnell
    W. Daniel Ebersole and Sarah Eby-Ebersole
    Peggy Foreman
    Robin and Hilton Howell
    Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones
    Joel Knox and Joan Marmo
    Margot and Danny McCaul
    The Ron and Lisa Brill Family Charitable Trust

    Generous support is also provided by
    Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, Isobel Anne Fraser–Nancy Fraser Parker Exhibition Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, and the RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund.