Southern Documentary Journal

A blog by Houck Medford
Journal

“Price Park Baptism” … finalist in Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition

I have been honored to have my documentary photograph "Price Park Baptism", selected as a finalist in the 11th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition.  The category for selection is "Culture: imagery depicting the people, their customs, traditions, architecture, and ways of life unique to the Southern Appalachian region." Julian Price Memorial Park is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway (Milepost 297)near Blowing Rock, N.C. and is a popular destination for personal,  family, and church activities.…

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March 16, 2014
Journal

A bidding war on a real cotton mom’s wedding dress …

When I was growing up, there was a box that I was never allowed to open.  I knew it to be my mom's wedding dress and that was pretty much that ... until now. My mom passed away in May of 2012, and her instructions to my sister and I in the last days of her life were to "take me home," with home being where she grew up as a child on a cotton farm  in…

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March 1, 2014
Journal

Cotton mom …

Cotton  Mom ... a still from our documentary-in-progress, Cotton Tale .... Cotton Tale is a century family, farm, and industry documentary headlining the changes in cotton production in the last 60 years.  The narrative vehicle for this documentary is the voice of the “last-one-standing” patriarch of a four generation farm family living in the Four Hole Swamp area of low-country South Carolina.  Family members and community will testify to the  family’s farming heritage which is characterized by deep-seated values of…

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February 24, 2014
Journal

Analysis of a remarkable photograph …

Everything is in context but this photograph is successful.   For those who have not seen it ... it was taken by author Jennifer Pharr Davis with her phone on the occasion of the UNC  Tarheels 74 to 66 win over Duke on February 20, 2014.  UNC was down by 7 at the half. It's success is  the captured moment of  Brew's "hold on to my hat" gesture, the confirmation by the image on the…

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February 21, 2014
Journal

Cotton wagon ….

Only sixty years ago, cotton from the field was pulled to the gin in a wagon with wire screen sides.  Today, the "boll buggy" dumps its load into a "module builder" which presses out a loaf of cotton that is hauled to the gin by a 16 wheeler.  An image from our  documentary project, "Cotton Tale."   Will Wofford mans the module builder and Josh Johnson pulls the load with the Houck Farms John Deere 7810.

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February 13, 2014
Journal

Is shooting with a camera like shooting with a gun?

“When this is in your hands (camera), you are the center of the universe. Not that anything else exists, it certainly does. You are important, this (the camera) empowers you to do whatever the hell you want.” … Mel DiGiamo Mel DiGiamo, was recently the featured artist on B&H's Event Space. For those unfamiliar with B&H, it is the largest photography, video, and pro audio, store in the world, at 490 Nineth Avenue in Manhattan.…

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January 19, 2014
Journal

What cotton fields see at night ….

This minute and a half multimedia is a composite of motion time lapse sequences used in the documentary, Cotton Tale. Cotton Tale is a century family, farm, and industry documentary headlining the changes in cotton production in the last 60 years. The narrative vehicle for this documentary is the voice of the “last-one-standing” patriarch of a four generation farm family living in the Four Hole Swamp area of low-country South Carolina. Family members and community will…

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January 13, 2014
Journal

Overloaded circuits at Ocracoke

  A recent trip by the High Country Chapter of the Audubon Society led by Jesse Pose and  Bob Cherry turned in an impressive list of sightings at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Area and around the then closed Bonner Bridge.  Despite the road closure over Oregon Inlet at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the lights didn't black out from a short circuit. A murmation of starlings almost occluded the sky in center-city Ocracoke.  Perhaps if they…

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January 4, 2014