House in Summertime, Greensboro, Alabama, 1972
.
Been thinking about Christenberry. It's hard to pick a favorite, but this one has always been meaningful to me. .
In Southern Photographs he says:
.
On one of my few winter trips home, in December 1972, I drove around the outskirts of Greensboro and found this house, literally a shack. It was near dusk. Smoke was coming out the chimney. .
I knocked on the door, and an elderly black lady answered. I asked, "Do you mind if I photograph your house?" And she said, "No Sir, but you must understand we could only paint as high as we could reach." That set me back a little. It was rather funny and sad at the same time. I said, "Yes Ma'am, I understand." I made a few pictures, and in a few minutes she opened the door again and said, "Let me turn on my Christmas lights for you."
.
The next year, in the heat of July, I went back and photographed it again, and every year after that, too, until 1976, and it was no longer there. It had disappeared from the face of the earth, along with everything that had been in the yard.