By Suzanne Révy
Do you ever feel a kinship with a total stranger in an old photograph? A glint of light, a hand gesture or the drape of a coat can create an emotional connection. I have come across three recently published books that have prompted feelings of nostalgia. Not the saccharine Hallmark kind, but the yearning to feel and smell something from a previous time in life. Dona Ann McAdams: Black Box, A Photographic Memoir (Saint Lucy Books) mines the artist’s photographic archive and pairs her pictures with written reminiscences from her childhood and adult life. Nancy Richards Farese probes family albums to better understand her own upbringing in I Still Speak Southern in My Head (Workshop Arts). Grace (L’Artiere) by Scott Often is a paean to the deep bonds between partners in life and love. These three deeply affecting books strike a wistful chord in their photographic and narrative arcs.
Dona Ann McAdams: Black Box, A Photographic Memoir published by Saint Lucy Books.
From the book Dona Ann McAdams: Black Box, A Photographic Memoir published by Saint Lucy Books (Photographed by Suzanne Révy)
Dona Ann McAdams is of a generation that made daily pictures intuitively without the notion of a concrete end such as a book. The goal was to see and to photograph. After decades of making pictures, there is a consistent vision here that is enhanced by her own writing in Black Box. We learn that the writing often came about during quiet times in the darkroom, where she would scribble notes with pencil and paper. Her short anecdotes function as photographs do… brief traces of the past. And the writing is paired with pictures that are not necessarily of the same place or time, but they share an ethos.
From the book Dona Ann McAdams: Black Box, A Photographic Memoir published by Saint Lucy Books (Photographed by Suzanne Révy)
From the book Dona Ann McAdams: Black Box, A Photographic Memoir published by Saint Lucy Books (Photographed by Suzanne Révy)
The deft sequence guides readers back and forth through the decades, offering a sense of McAdams’ humanism. Her travels around the world and through the years are both timely and timeless. A scene from 2016 at the Louvre echoes a picture made in the 1970’s with a cheerleader before a large crowd. Urgent matters such as women’s rights, the hazards of nuclear power or LGBTQ+ issues are peppered throughout. Although McAdams’ pictures demonstrate real concern for societal issues, they never become pedantic. A family picnicking in the shadow of Three Mile Island, for example, reveals the reticent grace of an ordinary afternoon, while reminding readers of the many ways our daily lives might be threatened.
I Still Speak Southern in My Head by Nancy Richards Farese published by Workshop Arts. (Book photographed by @the_bookphotographer)
From the book I Still Speak Southern in My Head by Nancy Richards Farese published by Workshop Arts. (Book photographed by Suzanne Révy)
Like McAdams, Nancy Richards Farese pairs writing with images in I Still Speak Southern in My Head, but she also includes ephemera from her family archive. Where McAdams utilizes stories, Farese offers editorial commentary on her past. Her thoughts recall the difficult history of the south, and by extension, the United States. Throughout the book, she confronts the paradox of “the lost cause” of the south which engenders shame, while finding pleasure in the memories of her childhood. Though I did not grow up in the south, I am also a child of the sixties, and Farese conveys a particular zeitgeist that feels redolent to me.
I Still Speak Southern in My Head by Nancy Richards Farese published by Workshop Arts. (Book photographed by Suzanne Révy)
I Still Speak Southern in My Head by Nancy Richards Farese published by Workshop Arts. (Book photographed by Suzanne Révy)
Inspired by the memoir style of journalism practiced by Joan Didion, Farese weaves a moving narrative in her personal reminiscences with a tactile dimensionality through stitched yarn and thread— you can almost touch the people from that time. The design features vernacular snapshots with contemporary pictures of her childhood home that are verdant and lush with humidity. We learn about her Black nanny, Lureen, as Farese struggles with a conundrum: what things to save and treasure from a troubled historic legacy and what things to let go.
Grace by Scott Offen published by L’Artiere.
From the book Grace by Scott Offen published by L’Artiere. (Book photographed by Suzanne Révy)
In contrast, Scott Offen’s pictures are a collaborative effort with his wife in Grace. The eponymous book features constructed black and white pictures of the outdoors and interiors, often including her figure. Instead of mining an archive, Offen is creating pictures that function as a reminder of a time in their married life. The pictures are suggestive of narratives or myths that might have been drawn from their memories.
From the book Grace by Scott Offen published by L’Artiere. (Book photographed by Suzanne Révy)
From the book Grace by Scott Offen published by L’Artiere. (Book photographed by Suzanne Révy)
The silhouetted figure waving a flag among a stand of bare trees evokes for this reader a kind of medieval scene of the end of a long battle or struggle. In another, we see the figure of Grace among a grove of thick trees which might conjure a meeting of “Ents” from JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. But there are more mundane pictures, interiors where Grace is merely a shadow on the wall or the shadow play of a window on her bare back. These two pictures paired together transmit a sense of calm interiority which matches the mood of this evocative book. These solemn moments seen through a monochromatic, steady rhythm is both romantic and formal. The book ends on a playful note with Grace indulging her inner child as she joyfully kicks her feet up to pump herself on an outdoor swing.
“I Still Speak Southern in My Head” by Nancy Richard Farese, published by Workshop Arts, “Dona Ann McAdams: Black Box, A Photographic Memoir” published by Saint Lucy Books, “Grace” by Scott Often, published by L’Artiere.
Dona Ann McAdams: Black Box, A Photographic Memoir
by Dona Ann McAdams with an afterword by Joanna Howard
2025 Saint Lucy Books
https://www.saintlucybooks.com/shop/p/black-box-a-photographic-memoir
I Still Speak Southern in My Head
By Nancy Richards Farese
2024 Workshop Arts
https://wrkshp.art/collections/books/products/i-still-speak-southern-in-my-head
Grace
by Scott Often, text by Laura McPhee
2025 L’Artiere
https://www.lartiere.com/en/prodotto/grace-scott-offen/
Share On Facebook
Tweet It
