Common Threads: Photographs and Stories From The South (no) [Hardcover]

Chip Cooper (Author), Kathryn Tucker Windham (Author), John Shelton Reed (Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0963671316 | ISBN-13: 978-0963671318 | Publication Date: November 15, 2000 | Edition: 1

A true song of the South. In splendid photographs and quiet, musing words, the South comes alive in all its independent history. And not just a South as the North sees it, in all it's flaring cliches, but as it sees itself. This large-sized, magnificent creation of a book portrays magnolia blossoms, of course, but also very much the pluck and charming eccentricity and unaffected worth of the South. The photographs speak of a nation, a section of the country, an old-time goodness unspoiled by consumerism. The 15 original stories by Kathryn Windham ( a respected journalist, some 82 years old) capture the small town flavor of the South in the 1930s as seen from the mind of a happy child who remembers flowers and large families and, especially, the family cook, Thurza. The photographs are full-blown portraits of a heritage and they range across the South, from Florida to Kentucky, from North Carolina to Alabama. In the days before exact recipes, when family cooks made food by feel and look and taste, Thurza made her soups and pies and cornbread and chicken the old way, by instinct and devotion. You look at these pages, entranced. This is the grand South, from the mind and eyes of the South. And it's a family album that tells the story of courtesy and trust and old-time way. The photographs of the people, the land, the structures of life from award-winning photographer Cooper have the same essential thread of consciousness as the stories, and they are the visual representations of goodness and a very special American way of being. Jay Bail - Executive Editor, The Book Reader

Editorial Reviews

Review

A new and fascinating viewpoint which will delight all! -- Robert Stevens, TIME Magazine, Associate Photo Editor, 2001

Common Threads casts a light on changes in the soul of the South. -- Jamie Ellin Forbes, Fine Art Magazine, New York City 2001

Thank you for the wonderful Common Threads. I do believe that you are a very great American photographer. -- Harper Lee, author, To Kill a Mockingbird 2001

Two Alabamians combine their talents to compose a sonnet to the South. . .These are happy stories. -- Wanda Butler, Southern Living Magazine 2001

From the Inside Flap

Kathryn Tucker Windham and Chip Cooper seem at first to be unlikely friends. One is a lady from the Black Belt, the other a boy from the hill country. One was a child in the 1920’s, the other in the 1950’s. One is a writer, the other a photographer.

But in COMMON THREADS: STORIES AND PHOTOGRAPHS from the Timeless South, these unlikely partners tread common ground, sharing stories and images that celebrate the rituals, beliefs, and icons that constitute the unique culture of the South. Windham and Cooper are keen observers and chroniclers of the Southern way of life and here, they celebrate images and symbols that represent the region’s storied past but remain central to the Southern experience today.

Having lived through most of this century, Kathryn Tucker Windham is a valuable witness to the changes and continuities in Southern folkways. She remembers the days when folks gathered in post office lobbies to gossip, make dates, announce engagements. These and other meeting places – homecomings, political rallies, funerals, weddings – figure importantly in her work, as they traditionally have in Southern life. Infused with a strong sense of place and ritual, Windham’s tales are meant to stir memory, to describe the South not only as it once was, but as it is today, a place of pathos, mystery, beauty, and humor.

Chip Cooper, born at the century’s halfway mark brings to COMMON THREADS the same appetite for discovering and appreciating his native land. Cooper is fascinated by the beauty and decay in the landscape, by the exceptional in the everyday: a strand of early-morning fog stretched across a deserted highway, the rusted patina of a junked car, one spider lily lifting its head above the rest. His photographs raise everyday objects to the status of icons. Though they are of objects and places, not humans, his photos nevertheless evoke the figures of those who are absent. In his work, one senses the ghosts of days long gone.

Taken together, Windham’s words and Cooper’s images complement – and complicate – each other. Their works celebrate Southerners’ complex relationship to place, the importance of community and family, the ongoing power of superstition and ritual. Their shared vision speaks to both the diversity and the continuity of the Southern experience, as they remind us that the past lives on, even in spaces occupied by the present. The homes and churches in Cooper’s photos remain a vital part of the landscape, just as the people and rituals in Windham’s stories live in her telling.

COMMON THREADS links the artistic visions of Cooper and Windham and weaves a connection between the artists, their subjects, and those who view this work. The book also plots a course from the early decades of this century to contemporary times, a thread that binds the stories and images into an expressed idea of an authentic South. The book thus becomes a kind of meeting place, where the artists share with each other and with the reader, and where all readers share in a celebration of the Southern experience.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: C K M Pr; 1 edition (November 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963671316
• ISBN-13: 978-0963671318
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 11.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,527,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book will take you back... Even if you were never there!, April 18, 2011

By 

Kera T - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Common Threads: Photographs and Stories From The South (no) (Hardcover)

If you appreciate the art of true storytelling, this book is for you. If you love your Southern heritage, or just love the South in general, this book is for you. If you love photography, history, family, and 'the good old days'... This book is for you!

Chip Cooper lures us in with his beautiful photography everywhere in the South. Some of his photo's are of old places that many of us never saw in their hay-day, and many of us will never know. Somehow, Kathryn Tucker Windham's stories help us fill in the gaps, and we can almost imagine the photographs of old places coming to life in the same way it would have looked 80 to 100 years ago.

On one page, a beautiful photograph that we can't take our eyes off of for a very long time. On the next, a story that we can't bear to be distracted from, even for a second. These simple yet highly fulfilling, and heartwarming tales of her childhood let us imagine as if we are in a time that many of us will never, ever see. Every story will make you smile, and if you are a Southerner, feel pride at the special ties and traditions that Southerners had, and will always, have.

Chip Cooper's photographs serve as the grand backdrop to these stories. A reminder that heritage and history are extremely important, even the smallest every-day parts of it. I strongly recommend this book to everyone. It is enlightening, uplifting, heartwarming, and a reminder to stop and smell the roses... Appreciate the simple things in life, and remember that those we love are the most important treasures of all.