MERIDIAN, Miss. (Queen City Newsfeed) – The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (The MAX) will present “The Beautiful Mysterious World of Color Photography” at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. The evening event will feature a screening, conversation, and book signing with photographer Maude Schuyler Clay and author W. Ralph Eubanks, highlighting the groundbreaking work of Mississippi-born photographers.
Clay and Eubanks will discuss the influence of MAX Hall of Fame inductees William Eggleston and William Ferris—two icons whose artistic legacies continue to shape a new generation of Southern creatives.
Until Eggleston’s landmark 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, color photography was not widely accepted as fine art. As a Mississippian with a transformative vision, Eggleston helped shift that perspective. Known as “The Father of Color Photography,” he earned a place in The MAX Hall of Fame for redefining the genre and inspiring those who followed.
Eggleston’s longtime friend and fellow MAX Hall of Fame member, folklorist William Ferris, began collecting Eggleston’s work in 1962. That collection later served as the foundation for the book “The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston.”
The evening begins with a screening of “The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston,” a documentary short by Kate Medley and Jesse Paddock. The film introduces viewers to Eggleston’s work and his distinctive use of color to portray everyday Southern life.
Following the screening, Schuyler Clay and Eubanks will engage in a public conversation about the lasting impact of Eggleston and Ferris on Mississippi’s creative culture—and on emerging artists like Medley.
“Like any good Mississippi story, these storytellers are closely related in myriad, complex ways.”
Maude Schuyler Clay, born and raised in Sumner, Mississippi, is the niece and former assistant of William Eggleston. A noted photographer in her own right, Clay began producing color portraits in 1975. Her work has been featured at the Museum of Modern Art, the High Museum of Art, and The MAX, including in the exhibition Southbound. Her published works include Delta Land, Delta Dogs, and Mississippi History.
W. Ralph Eubanks is a fellow at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi—an institution founded by Ferris. Eubanks’ Oxford American essay Color is Everywhere traces the intersecting stories of Eggleston and Ferris. His books include A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape, Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi’s Dark Past, and The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an Interracial Family in the American South.
“If a photograph is worth 1,000 words, Eubanks and Schuyler Clay have collaborated so many times that they’ve created their own alternate economy, bartering photographs for words.” Eubanks contributed to The Beautiful Mysterious, and his forthcoming book, When It’s Darkness on the Delta: An American Reckoning, as well as a recent article for Outside Magazine, feature photographs by Clay. In return, Clay’s forthcoming book “Maude Schuyler Clay: This Beautiful World” includes text by Eubanks.
Following the conversation, both Clay and Eubanks will be available to sign copies of their books, available at The MAX Store.
“The Beautiful Mysterious World of Color Photography” is presented in conjunction with The MAX’s current exhibition, “Thank You, Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South”—a showcase of 25 photographs by Kate Medley from her award-winning book of the same name.
Admission is free and open to the public.
