Sponsored by Gael and Smith Chaney, Cindy and Steve Edgerton, Marty Gardner, Jennifer Reis and Pete Mannen, Barbara and Guy Stanley, The Martinsville Graduate Kappa Delta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Lynwood Artists
For 35 years, photographer Timothy Duffy has forged a unique vision immortalizing Southern musical heroes and the world in which they live. The founder of Music Maker Foundation — a non-profit that preserves the musical traditions of the South by directly supporting the musicians who make it — Duffy traveled the South to capture this compelling collection of 25 wet-plate collodion photographs, which were printed with the platinum/palladium process.
The exhibit includes portraits ranging from guitar virtuoso and Allman Brothers Band member Derek Trucks and legendary bluesman Taj Mahal to lesser-known blues and soul artists, as well as images of instruments, like former Carolina Chocolate Drops member Dom Flemons' circa 1920 banjo, “Big Head Joe.”
Many of Duffy's subjects are the great, great grandchildren of enslaved people. The blues, gospel and jazz they created under these dire circumstances have profoundly shaped every contemporary form of popular music around the globe. Faced with this history, Duffy's images challenge the viewer to consider issues of racial equity as well as America's cultural heritage.
About Music Maker Foundation
Timothy and Denise Duffy founded Music Maker Foundation in 1994 to preserve and support our nation’s musical traditions by improving the lives of the artists who make them. Music Maker programs serve the most vulnerable artists — those marginalized by age, poverty, race, gender, etc. — because these are the artists least likely to have the resources to share their musical messages with the world. Since 1994, Music Maker has served over 500 musicians whose work spans the entire history of American music: blues, gospel, folk, singer-songwriter, Appalachian string band and Native American.