About the Digital Collection
Jesse Pyrant Andrews (b. 1949) has photographed the changing rural landscape of Southern Virginia since 1975. His work includes photographs of small southeastern towns, farm auctions, landscapes from train windows and, farming, including the effects of the industrialization of tobacco farming on communities that once depended on tobacco as their economic base. Andrews’ photographs of Latino H2A workers were chosen for inclusion in an exhibit at the International Center for Photography titled Only Skin Deep, Changing Visions of the American Self. He has also documented, with photographs and oral histories, the lives of disabled veterans. Andrews shoots 35mm black and white film which he prints in his traditional wet darkroom.
The Jesse Andrews Photographs digital collection consists of digitized black-and-white prints from several of Andrews' projects, including "13 Month Crop," an exhibit hosted by Duke University's Perkins Library; Bill Davis and the Davis family; portraits from North Carolina, Virginia, and New York City; photographs of Halifax and Pittsylvania counties; and a series of photographs from Andrews' Train Project, featuring images taken from train windows.
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Source Collection
This digital collection comprises selected materials from the following archival collection at David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library:
Jesse Pyrant Andrews photographs and oral histories 1973-2022
Collection #RL.00043 | 15 Linear Feet (19 boxes); 59 Gigabytes (196 audio files)
ABSTRACT
Jesse Pyrant Andrews is an American photographer based in rural southern Virginia. Collection comprises 301 black-and-white photographs and 46 oral history interviews by photographer Jesse Pyrant Andrews, documenting rural and small-town life in the Piedmont region of Virginia and North Carolina. Major themes center on the landscapes and people of the region; tobacco cultivation; the lives of farmers, war veterans, small business owners, and laid-off workers; local architecture and historic sites; traditional crafts and music; and new patterns of economics and society in rural Virginia. Andrews's Veterans Project has become a larger focus over the years; it now comprises over 30 portraits and associated audio interviews, chiefly with veterans of the Vietnam and Gulf Wars. Additional projects include materials related to the Carter-Wooding families of southern Virginia; views from an Amtrak train; views of an historic plantation home, Mountainview; and street scenes and portraits taken in New York City, California, and Massachusetts. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
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The preservation of the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections and the Duke Digital Repository programs are supported in part by the Lowell and Eileen Aptman Digital Preservation Fund
