America's Photographer

What do you do when the sun shines in Alabama!!!!

2010-05-30T21:52:00.004-04:00

You stop all blogging and go out shooting!!!! I have not had one moment of time since my last blog because it has been so beautiful down here in the state of Alabama.

I have now donated over 3,000 images to the George F. Landegger Alabama Library of Congress Collection. I am working on my final 1,000 images, then will head home on June 11th. I have been here over 100 days. Every day I get up at 5:30AM can't wait to get out on the road. I will travel 20,000 miles in Alabama by the time I am done.

Visit my new "Alabama" Web site: 21stCenturyAlabama.com

I have seen some of the most beautiful and interesting sites.

The shrimp boats in Bayou La Batre

A Civil War reenactment in Bridgeport

Colorful Murals in Dothan

Springtime in Auburn

Feeding goats at Burritt on the Mountain in Huntsville

Even a visit to an old motel along the road - Way out there

I've also received some great press - see links:

http://blog.al.com/entertainment-press-register/2010/04/_highsmith_trail_pphotograp.html

http://blog.al.com/living-news/2010/05/national_photographer_captures.html

http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-stories/2010/05/frances_benjamin_johnstons_tri.html

http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-100-days-project-alabama,0,4511727.story

I will be sad to leave Alabama. I so look forward to seeing all of it and I'm sure there are some small towns that I have not visited. I will be back in the fall for the Alabama and Auburn games and I will try to get to all I have not finished.

Mr. Landegger has been very generous to send me to Alabama. Now he is donating a summer of photography in historic Washington, D.C. - it will also be donated copyright-free to the Library of Congress.

In my entire career, I have never enjoyed anything so much as this venture. I really can't put my finger on why? Maybe it was just the right time for me to go out and truly document 21st Century America. Also, maybe my 30 year career, which has been fascinating, has reached the top of the mountain. Then again it could be I am connecting with my childhood that I spent on my grandparents farm in North Carolina during the summers.

I now have my work set out for me. I want to photograph all of the states for the next 16 years and give all of the images to the American people so that 100 years from now we can see what we looked like at the turn of this century.

I know the sun is still shinning, but I will be blogging more often once I get home and can catch up with myself. Can't wait to see my husband and my kitties.

FROM HIGH BROW TO OUT OF CONTROL IN ALABAMA!!!!

2010-03-26T01:15:00.000-04:00

Oh my, what a couple of nights I have had. I just had to share it right away. I want music, lots of music and art and all that wonderful stuff that make images come alive and there is lots of it down here. So last night I went to the opera. It was a performance of "The Flying Dutchman" by the Mobile Opera. It was wonderful, colorful, beautiful and fabulous.

So I left Mobile but will be back because I need to see flowers and green grass. Nothing has popped yet! I was excited to travel back to Montgomery where I have spent quite a bit of time. This visit, however, was for a very special event - The Alabama Country Hall of Fame Inductees. Was I in for a treat! Guitar players twanged and lights flashed and finally the entire audience danced in the halls. It was really rockin!

Then the Blind Alabama Boys came out...the audience went wild!!!! I did too!!!!

I had no idea what was still in store for me! Pure Alabama Country and Soul!

Eddie Levert...That's right, Mr. Soul Train Himself. By the time he was done taking us all on the train, I was worn out. But it was not over. The very best was the very last. Thank goodness!!!

Percy Sledge......WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN.......!!!!!!! Oh, my; Oh, my, my, my.
The original version no less. But then he got down on his hands and knees. I wept!!!!!

There he was singing my very favorite song right in front of me on his hands and knees. I screamed and screamed and the floor shook with the audience going wild. It was exhausting! Oh, Alabama, you have so very much to offer. These talented artist are all Alabama born and raised. I am just plain "lovin it" down here. Now all I need is some warm days and I might even start to talk "southern." Talk some "Dixie" talk.

Stay tuned for rattlesnakes and gun fights...and some caves too.

COWBOYS, JAZZ ARTISTS AND WILD ARTIST ALL IN ALABAMA!!!

2010-03-22T23:05:00.000-04:00

It's been night and day down here in the the Heart of Dixie. I'm running around with my camera on automatic and then staying up all night writing the database that must accompany every photo...but, I love it. What a state! What a state! Alabama, home of the Crimson Tides, The Confederacy, Black History everywhere, Shrimp boats on the Bay, Rodeos, Rattlesnakes and Wild, Wild Artists. I'm just about done with Montgomery, Alabama where I spent my first couple of weeks. My final night was spent at the Rodeo

The American Flag waved and the horse trotted and we all ate popcorn and corn dogs and yelled and screamed! (No, I lied - I'm not allowing myself any Southern fried food!)

Then the cowboy came out riding two tons of oxen! Wow! I thought cowboys only did this in Texas. I left Montgomery thinking I had just been in Austin.... it was fun and a night of entertainment.

I raced down to Mobile to see if anything was blooming yet. No such luck. Dead trees, dead grass and clouds. So I just strolled the town and ventured down to the beach.

I am very interested in art in Alabama because most of it is colorful and different. There is no exception to this with the most famous artist in Alabama, the South and maybe even America. His name is Nall and he and his art are unique. He dressed up for me and we went to town taking all sorts of images. This is nothing new for him. When I got home, I looked through the book he gave me and saw his first self portrait was all curled up on a grave...with no clothes on in a fetal position. Glad I didn't ask him to do any of that. His art is fabulous and he is a character. He lives 1/2 of the year in France so I was glad to catch him.

After a pleasant day in Fairhope, Alabama, I returned to Mobile and headed over to the Bienville Square to feed the squirrels. That's when I heard the sax man playing some of my favorite tunes. I put down a $5 and ask for a photo session. He complied and I shot away while he continued to play. Heaven. Two characters in one day and loads of images to pick from.

Now that I had my "artists" taken care of, I took advantage of the cloud cover and raced over to Magnolia Cemetery. The angels were waiting for me. I finished the day doing my wash across the street from the Whataburger - it even looked good with clouds.

I am really enjoying my experiences in Alabama because every day is different and unique. All the people are nice and it is so easy to get around. I have laid out my plan for the next two months. There may be some spots that require that I call the Alabama Extension Services...they are way out there. But today was good and tomorrow is the beach again - Shrimp boats and Forts and the ferry across the Bay.

Montgomery to Birmingham to Selma and back to Montgomery

2010-03-07T22:52:00.002-05:00

I left Montgomery and continued to follow the Black History trail in Alabama. I plan to do much more than Black History in Alabama, but I feel it is important to cover it throughly before I move on to all the vast aspects of this state. Still emotional from my experience in Montgomery photographing Martin Luther King's parsonage and church...I could not get out of my mind how simple and peaceful his life seemed in his small home. With the sunlight pouring in the windows, it just seems so innocent.

Peaceful and innocent was really not the case at all during the time that Martin Luther King lived in this house. My eyes were opened in Birmingham (previously called Bombingham because so many African American households were "bombed." One neighborhood was even called Dynamite Hill. My first stop was the 16th Street Baptist Church.

This beautiful stain glass depiction of Jesus was left pretty much intact the day four black girls were killed in May of 1961 when a bomb hit the church service they were attending. After the bomb erupted, the only piece missing was his face. As you can see, it has been repaired, but the story of the day the church was "hit" is still resonating. I thought to myself, my birthday is around that time of year...and I remember 1961 because I was a teenager. My main interest during that time was what color shoes I was to wear to various parties. I had no idea all girls my age were not experiencing the same life. I did not know about fear or discrimination. The park across the street from the church shows what the Black community was facing...every day.

These are water guns. No, not squirt guns...real water guns that could really hurt you. Note it is teenagers that they are pointed at...Children were targets too...no matter what age. Then there were the dogs.

Fierce and mean dogs. The kind that are taught to kill.
Now there is also a place where the entire story can be told. The story of the movement, the story of the girls, the story of the "Times, they are a-changin." It is the Civil Rights Institute and it is across the street from the church and the park.

The exhibits in the Institute are brutally honest. Colored and White. Black and White. White and Tan...just like the color of the cooler. The Civil Rights Institute tells it like it was. The hate, the discrimination and the struggle.

The Ku Klux Klan. White Robes and burned crosses. Who was underneath. Could it be your local banker? barber? school teacher? No one really knew for sure. But they left their mark...and now they are gone. But the Black History lesson continues. From Birmingham, I drove to Selma to experience first hand what it was like to sing "We Shall Overcome" and march across the Edmund Pettus bridge.

I was there today to hear the speeches, listen to the songs and to walk across the bridge and feel the emotions.

They lined up like they did 45 years ago. Hand in hand walking across the bridge. It did not stop there. Many of them plan to walk the 50 miles to Montgomery to remember the event to the fullest. Even Jesse Jackson showed up.

How can anyone forget that he was there when Martin Luther King was shot. He was there during all of these events....45 years ago.

I drove on to Montgomery following the exact route that was taken for the original march. It was 50 miles. 50 Miles of thoughts about my teenage years, the black and white TVs showing these "far away" events and realizing how far we have all come. Or have we?

On to Tuskegee tomorrow.

From Frivolous to Serious in Alabama

2010-02-28T21:06:00.001-05:00

It's been a whirlwind experience so far in the state of Alabama. Landing in the heart of Mobile to catch beads and Moon Pies at the festivities of Mardi Gras was tons of fun and drop-dead exhausting. After days of celebrations, I left Mobile and headed North to Montgomery, Alabama.

Montgomery is a beautiful city. It has stunning white government buildings and Capitol. I was there to not only feature this Capitol City, but also to begin to follow the trail of Black History in Alabama. Mobile does have some Black history, but I did not have time between the excitement of Mardi Gras to understand it. I will be back in Mobile and I will visit Black churches and memorials then.

Montgomery, however, is steeped in history of Martin Luther King and those who worked with this famous man as they fought for equal rights and Civil Rights. So my first stop was his church. The Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. Dr. King became pastor, the twentieth pastor, in 1954. It would be his first and only full-time pastorate. All that is in the church is the same. Maybe a couple of panes of glass from the windows have been changed, but other than that, it is exactly as he saw it.

I drove from the church just a few blocks away to the parsonage where Martin Luther KIng lived and where he spent time with his wife Coretta, and his new baby girl, Yolanda. I was emotional inside the church, but was even more touched by this small home. Much of the furniture is original and the house seemed so peaceful.

Hard to believe that a bomb hit the window of this living room while Martin Luther King was away from the house. Coretta and baby Yolanda were home, but luckily not near the window.

It was, however, in this kitchen that Dr. King had a revelation that, even though he felt fear, he should continue his important work.

It was only a few blocks away from the church and the parsonage that violence was getting bloody - really bloody. The Freedom Riders (a group of Black activists) were getting on buses and Greyhound was being forced by Attorney General Robert Kennedy to let them ride. The KKK was not too far behind and they were beaten with bats and iron pipes. No ambulance came to the rescue, nor were the police anywhere to be seen. A very dark day in the movement.

It was Rosa Parks that brought it all to a head. This scene is from the Rosa Parks museum in Montgomery.

They are all gone now. Martin Luther, Rosa Parks, the Freedom Riders and many of the courageous men and women who fought the fight and won. All that is left are the monuments like this one to the Civil Rights Movement and all it stood for, only a block from the Dexter Avenue church. It shows all the important dates of the movement and the water running off its black edifice never ceases to flow. Even though Black History month ends tonight, I will continue to do another blog or two to this important subject. As I drive to Birmingham, Selma, Tuskegee and Gees Bend over the next few days, there will be images to show and tales to tell.

SWEET HOME ALABAMA!!!!!!!!!

2010-02-22T20:07:00.002-05:00

By now I should have had two new blogs up to tell you all about my new home away from home....the exciting and beautiful state of Alabama. There is always a reason for not getting done what you say you are going to do, but this time it really is the truth. We had snow over our heads at my house near Washington, D.C.

Yes, that is the blizzard of 2010. A historic moment in time when all you could do it shovel around the clock and look out the window in disbelief. It lasted for days, then cleared up for a minute or two, then lasted for more days. This photo is of my husband, Ted, out trying to keep up with it. He is 6 feet tall. The snow was drifting up to 10 feet in the back yard. The Federal Government was closed and so was everything else. I am originally from Minneapolis and I had never seen anything like it.

Now I am down in the Heart of Dixie thinking that the weather will be warmer and there will be no snow....well, we have had a little snow and it has been as cold as 20 degrees Fahrenheit at night. Thank goodness I am staying for months and in a couple of weeks I will be viewing azaleas blooming or I would think we might be going into the ice age.

I know the weather is changing down here because I actually heard the boom of a thunder storm last night. Oh, yes, let Spring come!

So back to my first few days in Mobile, Alabama. What an alluring and charming city. I was there to experience Mardi Gras, the oldest Mardi Gras in America. What an escapade!

My first introduction to the Mardi Gras experience was to meet with Wayne Dean who was dressed up as Joe Cain. Joseph Stillwell Cain, Jr. (Joe Cain) was credited with the birth or rebirth of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. In 1887, following the Civil War, Joe Cain paraded thorough the streets of Mobile, dressed in a costume depicting a fictional Chickasaw chief named Slacabamorinico. Because of his antics, every year the Sunday before Fat Tuesday, they celebrate Joe Cain Day in Mobile.

I went from the "Chief" to the OOMs. Who are they? They are the Order of the Myths. It is pronounced "double-oh-ems." They are Mobile's first and oldest Mardi Gras society and they also remain one of the most secretive. It was a BIG deal for me to go to their party. Thank you Nick Holmes!

I met Folly and Death and they posed for me!

Then the Mardi Gras man came and played a tune!

The day ended with wild and amazing Mardi Gras floats and now I am TRULY beginning my journey through my NEW Sweet Home Alabama.

ALABAMA BOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-01-03T15:57:00.001-05:00

A very exciting event happened to me right before the holidays! I have been working on securing funding for a project I have labeled 21st Century America. My idea was to follow in the footsteps of Dorotha Lange and other WPA photographers and record America - state by state - on high resolution digital cameras during the early 21st Century and donate the images to the Library of Congress. The project has been funded for the state of Alabama and will begin at the Mobile, Alabama Mardi Gras (the very first Mardi Gras in America!) celebration in early February 2010! I am extremely excited. Once I am down in Alabama, I will be uploading weekly blogs and You Tube videos because I will have so much to show off. I owe a big Thank You to Sharon Tyson, the Executive Director of the 21st Century America Foundation, Inc. located in Alabama. Her efforts in fund raising have paid off and now we can show the rest of the world how diverse and incredible the state of Alabama is.

This is an amazing state. Known as the "Heart of Dixie", Alabama has more than 4.5 million residents. The state has heavily invested in aerospace, education, health care, banking and various heavy industries including automobile manufacturing, mineral extraction, steel production and fabrication.

The capital of Alabama is Montgomery, and the largest city by population is Birmingham. The largest city by total land area is Huntsville and the oldest city is Mobile.

Since photography is the way I communicate and I have not started in Alabama yet, I thought I would show you what the Library of Congress has in its archives now. I will be adding at least 4,000 digital files and several You Tube videos to this archive.

Bienville Park 1906 - Mobile

Cussedy Hall Park, Tuskegee - 1907

Skyline Farms - 1937

Montgomery 1929

Birmingham 1910

Gee's Bend 1939

Many of these images were taken by famous photographers. Walker Evans took this one of a Coca-cola shack somewhere in Alabama:

So I am getting organized, cleaning my cameras and preparing for my Alabama journey that will begin
in February 2010. I will work every day for three or four months, then come back again in the fall.
All the Convention and Visitors Bureaus and the Chambers of Commerce are going to give me lists miles long to I can capture all that Alabama has to give. I can't wait to tell you all about it and I trust you
will join me for this wild and interesting ride through "The Heart of Dixie".

2009-11-24T08:56:00.001-05:00

California Bound!

I am Carol M. Highsmith and this is my very first blog post. Wow! I've wanted to write this for a very long time and now I am actually going to put myself out there. I am going to write a blog every month and tell you what I am up to and why. Thanks for coming to my web site, www.CarolHighsmithAmerica.com. I look forward to communicating with you and hearing your comments about my photography and travels.

I have been in the photography business for quite some time. I started in the 1980s as an architectural photographer. At that time there were very few "architectural" photographers in the business. I decided to follow in the footsteps of a female architectural photographer who worked as an architectural and portrait photographer more than 100 years ago. Her name was Frances Benjamin Johnston. If you look at my website you can see My Inspiration section that tells about her influence on me.

Frances Benjamin Johnston gave her collection of images copyright-free to the Library of Congress and they became the cornerstone of the Prints and Photographs Division's historic collection. I decided to follow Johnston almost 30 years ago and I plan to give my collection copyright-free to the Library of Congress also. So I travel America all year and capture everything I see!

I traveled 30,000 miles across America this year.

My last trip took me all over California. What a state! I went to Sacramento first where I had an assignment in one of the new Courthouses to "showcase" art for General Services Administration. The art was wonderful.

While I was there I visited Old Sacramento - just minutes away from the courthouse and took a couple of photographs.

And look at this colorful

Tower Bridge

After I finished my assignment, I decided to stay in California for awhile and go down to the San Diego area and visit the missions, zoo, beaches and soak up the California sun.

I bypassed San Francisco and LA because I have been to both so many times, so my first stop was the most famous Mission - San Juan Capistrano - They call it the Jewel of the California Missions.

The staff at this historic mission let me roam free and take any images I wanted. I went straight to the chapel and concentrated on statue details in the Serra Chapel.

I then hustled on down to sunny, warm, inviting, historic, beautiful San Diego. My camera never stopped snapping.

I went to the zoo and found the Panda fast asleep

I visited beaches and most importantly La Jolla Cove - What a thrilling experience. The waves were coming in strong and the sky was brilliant blue

It took all I had to leave that beach and keep on heading south. It was a glorious day.

Imperial Beach is so far south - it is almost in Mexico

And the oldest mission in California is San Diego de Alcalá - another heavenly experience in photography - sun behind me, lemon light, no one in my way. Amazing!

Finally, I made it to San Diego - It had many more tall buildings since I was last here 15 years ago. I found just the spot to "show it off" and then waited for a sail boat to glide across.

I miss the San Diego area. I was all by myself and just rolled around and photographed anything I wanted. It was a memorable few days of utter enjoyment and fascination. What a place!

So I left San Diego in my rear view mirror, I had some work to do before I left the vast state. I have been working on Route 66 for years and had never been able to visit it in California. This time I was going to go North and pick up the historic Mother Road and my first visit was the Wigwam Motel in Rialto. Look at this beauty.

One of my favorite photography experiences is to shoot in black and white Infrared. It is so fun. You can take anything and make it look unusual. Add a Wigwam and palm trees and you have a whole new way of looking at scenes. It makes it look like I took this image sometime in the 40s when it was built instead of just a few weeks ago.

So all good things do have to come to an end. I must admit, this was difficult. What a dream to just get up in the morning to absolute perfect weather and plan my day according to my every little whim. From missions to pandas to the beauty of the beach - I did it all. Then to end the trip on the Mother Road in California was frosting on the cake.

Please join me next month and I'll show you more road trips of my journey across America.