of black and white.

recently, a collection of images in the halls of the corcoran college of art and design grabbed my attention, as it did most other passers-by. the uniformly 5x7 black and whites are nailed to the expansive white walls in a single line.  it's simple modesty draws you in, but the provoking concept makes you stay.

in his photographs, student Mark Haley's "The New South" combines words, place, and memory to capture the often dueling relationship of history and modernity. 

on the work's name card is a quote from William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust:"For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863..."

this 1940s novel inspires respect and racial equality, provoking the viewer the see a spirit of possibility even Haley's most wearisome image. check it out at 500 17th street nw, washington, dc, 20006.