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What family photos from the past are special to you? How can they help us to better understand each other in the present?

Radcliffe Bailey explores American history and familial memory to encourage healing and reflection through art.

In “Tobacco Blues,” Bailey centers a photograph of tobacco plants on his grandfather’s farm in Virginia. He surrounds this image with a patchwork of different shades of blue, arching vines and branches, and drawings of historic African American architecture.  He bridges the gap between past and present with the inclusion of words from contemporary African American poetry.

By Christy Barlow
School & Community Programs Senior Manager
Education, Engagement & Learning

Cross and vine imagery surround an archival photo of a Virginia tobacco farm.

Radcliffe Bailey
(b.1968)
“Tobacco Blues,” 2000
Gift of Lynn Barstis Williams Katz to the Imprinting the South Collection
Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University

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