October 27th, 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Does the Southern Genre actually exist? And if so, what defines it?  This discussion will be held within Anne Berry’s & Lori Vrba’s exhibition “Intrusions of Grace: A Visual Response to the Writing of Flannery O’ Connor” at Greensboro Project Space.  Believers and skeptics are welcome and encouraged to speak your mind.

Panelists:

Lori Vrba
lorivrba.com

Lori Vrba’s imagery is rooted in themes of memory, illusion, loss and revival.  Her assemblage works combine found objects with original photographs that speak to the southern sensibilities of storytelling.  Her solo shows have been met nationally and internationally with great acclaim.  Her work is held in permanent as well as private collections through out the world.   She is the co-founder of Pigs Fly retreats and a coordinator of North Carolina’s Click Photography Festival.  Her first monograph published by Daylight was named one of the top ten photo books of 2015 by American Photo Magazine.

Anne Berry
anneberrystudio.com

Anne Berry is a photographic artist from Atlanta, Georgia.  Anne believes that photography contains the power to evoke empathy and that caring motivates action. Anne photographs primates in monkey houses of small zoos, mostly in Europe. Her project, Behind Glass, has been featured in international publications and is the recipient of numerous awards. It is included in museum permanent collections as well as in private, corporate and public collections.  Anne’s new photographs explore themes and concepts from literature, especially from the works of Flannery O’Connor and T. S. Eliot.  Modern man exists in a material and technical world, separate from nature and cut off from the spiritual energy that surrounds him. Children and animals are closer to this primal, holy spirit. Through Anne’s photographs they communicate, through feelings rather than language, a nostalgic sense of the loss of this connection and a longing to regain it and nurture it before it is too late.

Scott Romine
https://english.uncg.edu/people/faculty/romine.html

Scott Romine is Professor of English and Department Head at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the author of “The Narrative Forms of Southern Community” (1999) and “The Real South: Southern Narrative in the Age of Cultural Reproduction” (2008), and coeditor, with Jennifer Rae Greeson, of “Keywords for Southern Studies” (2016). He edits the Southern Literary Studies series at LSU Press.  He is currently co-writing a book on southern food entitled “Against Cornbread Nationalism.” 
And more distinguished guests...

Moderated by Bryce Lankard
brycelankard.com

The core of my photography is anchored in the documentary tradition. I have always been attracted by the emotional reactions to the world around me that I have had as a human, and as an American, albeit one with an admittedly Southern persuasion. Growing up in the heart of the bible belt and living in the rapidly evolving world at the end of a millennium, I have been filled with a sense of wonder and curiosity. My body of work entitled Evening Land has been inspired by the philosophical themes in the work of the great southern writer Walker Percy, and specifically these words from The Moviegoer, “It’s an interesting age you live in - though I can’t say I'm sorry to miss it. But it should be quite a sight, the going under of the evening land. That’s us all right. And I can tell you, my young friend, it is evening. It is very late." 

My reactions to this tableau range from reverence to outrage, to love and awe, humor and horror. I believe that the images I make are clearly colored by the very personal reactions of my gut, my mind and my eye and that my camera is just the tool of a subjective artist. I feel blessed to work with the large palette that the medium of photography offers. In the act of creation, I have many different tools available in which to influence the mood and tone of the work and I do enjoy taking advantage of these choices.  Despite my conscious efforts to create a narrative and context, the equation is not complete without consideration of the contribution of the viewer. The meaning and relevance of the work therefore is never fixed and final as each new viewer will bring their own associations to its interpretation. All are welcome.