Spring has sprung. Christenberry shows opens at Cheekwood.

This view seemed to sum up the Christenberry work -- one of the few artists doing both sculpture and photography. Here, the famous green barn.

Today was Free day at Cheekwood. I didn’t know it in advance, but it certainly was a nice surprise when I got to the gate. (I’d list a link here for Cheekwood, but Google shows them as “an attack site”; appears someone has hacked into the site, and it risks corruption). I’d heard about the William Christenberry show opening recently, and that along with a gorgeous spring day just sent me out Harding Road to check it out. It’s been years since I’d been there. (Why?) Sorry for the bad “CIA iPhone photos”; I was not sure if the guard would hassle me for shooting inside the mansion.

One thing I found interesting: Christenberry seemed to shoot some of the barns with a Kodak Brownie camera, (maybe as he was just out driving, and scouting), and then, if he really found a good one, he’d come back with “a real camera” and reshoot that barn. But to me, the Kodak Brownie images had much more atmosphere and feeling than the modern camera images. (Are we moving forward, or backward….?) The Brownie images had this beautiful glowy diffusion in the highlights, and much lower softer contrast. You could see into the deep shadows, even on sunny days.

Another thing that hit me — people of his generation could photograph these historic barns and landscapes, but for some reason, there’s seems to be a rule that younger photographers are criticized if they do. So what does that leave this generation to photograph? Seven-Elevens? WalMarts? Shopping malls? Starbucks? Metal barns? It’s like the younger photographers are criticized for “copying prior generations” or “not being true to their own lives”. I wonder how Stephen Shore felt when he was doing those cross-country drives? At that time, mid-70’s, Shore was just photographing his “current reality”, and it probably didn’t even seem interesting to him, because it was all he knew; he was like a fish in water. I mean, what’s so interesting about a 1974 Ford Maverick in the year 1974? A 1974 Ford Maverick only becomes interesting and notable much later, say, in the year 2000 or so. You have to skip a generation before it’s really cool and worthwhile. I can remember being a small kid, in southern Kentucky, in the 60’s and 70’s, and having my parents and grandparents drag me through rural southern Kentucky, thru the coal mine areas and the falling-down shacks, so that is first-hand to me; it is MY experience, intimately. But I’m right on the verge of being too young to be allowed to be so nostalgic as that, photographically.

The place was a mob scene -- people sprawled out everywhere. Almost gives you hope for the Arts in Nashville.

William Christenberry -- discarded eggcrate cross salvaged from Alabama cemetery.

Framed grid of barn photographs. Each frame approximately 9x12 inches.

To me, by far the most gorgeous image of the show, and one I'd never seen before -- red Alabama mud grave, with bright red flowers inserted. Stunning image.

Appears the Christenberry will give lecture there in mid-April. Must-see. (Click/enlarge).