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Mayfield’s ‘Juke Joints’ photo collection exhibited at UM’s Barnard Observatory
November 25, 2008
UNIVERSITY--An insider’s view of blues musicians and the lively action inside Mississippi Delta juke joints is being exhibited through January 16, 2009, here in the Gammill Gallery located in the Barnard Observatory.
The photo collection: “Juke Joints – Live from the Mississippi Delta” documented through several decades by veteran photographer/journalist Panny Flautt Mayfield of Clarksdale, has earned critical acclaim in a review published by internationally-celebrated Aperture magazine.
A reception with the artist will be held from 12 noon – 2 p.m. Friday, December 5 at the Barnard Observatory.
“Mayfield’s shots are like the very best picks from a very good party,” writes the reviewer. “She brings her subjects and their world into sight with a lively immediacy no less compelling for all its casualness.”
“In Mayfield’s works, the clubs have funky names like Red’s and Bobo’s Grocery; the subjects are the likes of Bilbo Walker and his dancing daughters, Tater and Super Chikan; and the down-home club setting is fueled by hard-driving blues and a hard-drinking culture,” says the Aperture article.
“These photographs resonate with unfiltered affection for their subjects and their culture,” continues the reviewer. “We are left to wonder if these photographs are the last innocent evidence of an extraordinarily vivid and valuable culture.”
Although the exhibit of 30 unposed photographs includes several celebrities including rock star Robert Plant and blues masters B.B. King and Charlie Musselwhite, most feature local artists and friends of the photographer.
A life-long Mississippian who grew up in Tutwiler and has lived most of her adult life in Clarksdale, Mayfield says she considers herself lucky to step outside every day in the center of Delta blues, the childhood home of Tennessee Williams, and many talented musicians, artists, scholars, and friends.
“Juke Joints” made its debut at the Delta Blues Museum in 2006; has been featured at Cottonlandia Museum in Greenwood; and opened Art Week at Hinds Community College. Her blues photographs have been exhibited at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam and were introduced at the International Notodden Festival by the Norwegian Minister of Culture.
Appointed ambassador for the European Blues Center in Norway, Mayfield has received numerous awards from the Mississippi Press Association, the Associated Press, and the College Public Relations Association of Mississippi. She is a former features editor at the Clarksdale Press Register with extensive freelance work published in national and international publications. In 2006 she was named Clarksdale’s Citizen of the Year.
She is public relations director of Coahoma Community College where she serves as project director of the Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival. A charter member and publicist for the Sunflower River Blues Association, she is recipient of the Early Wright Blues Heritage Award.
At the University of Mississippl where she graduated with honors in English and journalism, she was recipient of the Taylor Medal, editor of the student newspaper, and member of the Hall of Fame.
Cutlines of photographs in the collection
Dancing inside Margaret’s Blue Diamond in Clarksdale during the 1980s.
Michael and Rip serenade Mae at the Dew Drop Inn in Shelby.
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