CLASS Publishing presents Frances Benjamin Johnston’s Carolina, a new/old photography collection edited and presented by the award-winning team of William P. (Billy) Baldwin and Selden B. (Bud) Hill.
After setting up her own photography studio in 1894, in Washington, D.C., Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) was described by The Washington Times as “the only lady in the business of photography in the city.” Considered to be one of the first female press photographers in the United States, she took pictures of news events and architecture and made portraits of political and social leaders for more than five decades. From early on, she was conscious of her role as a pioneer for women in photography, telling a reporter in 1893, “It is another pet theory with me that there are great possibilities in photography as a profitable and pleasant occupation for women, and I feel that my success helps to demonstrate this, and it is for this reason that I am glad to have other women know of my work.” (Museum of Modern Art)
Johnston came to South Carolina at the height of the Great Depression and, with the support of the Carnegie Survey of Architecture of the South, took more than 600 photographs which are catalogued now on the Library of Congress site. From the collection, Baldwin and Hill chose 160 of the best, depicting Charleston, Georgetown, Camden and the rural environs connecting these cities, and coupled them with clips of text from the 1941 WPA Guide to South Carolina. The results tell the story of this place and time through the eyes of a mostly forgotten creative professional woman.
This is the co-authors’ fourth collaboration, following earlier black-and-white photography books The Unpainted South (2011) and These Our Offerings (2012) – each of which won the Gold Benjamin Franklin Award for poetry given by the Independent Book Sellers Association – and Carolina Rambling which shares a touching elegiac look at the Lowcountry’s holy places.
Baldwin is a lifelong resident of the Carolina Lowcountry. An award-winning novelist, poet, photographer, biographer and historian, Billy’s works include the popular oral histories Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden and, with Genevieve “Sister” Peterkin, Heaven is a Beautiful Place. For its depiction of Southern race relations, his first novel The Hard to Catch Mercy won the Lillian Smith Award. He wrote three more, most recently Charles Town, called a “tour de force” by Charleston Magazine. He has collaborated with photographers V. Elizabeth Turk and N. Jane Iseley on their historical works, as well as chef Charlotte Jenkin’s cookbook and memoir. Additional poetry collections have been released and received with enthusiasm. His writing has also appeared in Charleston, Garden and Gun, Southern Living, Victoria, Veranda, Southern Accents, Grace, and Humans and Nature.
Saturday, March 26, 6 PM at the McClellanville Town Hall (405 Pinckney Street,
McClellanville)
Saturday, April 16, 2 PM at the Goose Creek Public Library (325 Old Moncks Corner
Rd, Goose Creek).
All speaking events are free and open to the public.