MAGDALENA SOLÉ: Mississippi Delta

Porch with Family, Mississippi Delta

Photograph (c) Magdalena Solé/All Rights Reserved

Girl Dancing in Pink, Baptist-Town, Greenwood, MS Delta
Photograph (c) Magdalena Solé/All Rights Reserved

Friends Passing Time, Lampert, MS Delta
Photograph (c) Magdalena Solé/All Rights Reserved

Hot Afternoon on Porch, Lampert, MS Delta
Photograph (c) Magdalena Solé/All Rights Reserved

Shacks near Tutwiler, MS Delta
Photograph (c) Magdalena Solé/All Rights Reserved

Mississippi Delta
Photograph (c) Magdalena Solé/All Rights Reserved

I have returned to the Delta a dozen times.
Always for the same reason: the people.

Cotton Land: A Forgotten Place

"People in the Delta have stories, music, love and deep care for their community, irrespective of the hardship they endure. I was drawn to the people I encountered. They were unlike most I had known. They allowed me to slip into their midst as if they had known me for a long time, and we could share stories, laughter, sorrow and silence. This didn’t happen one time, it happened every day in every town."

"I always bring the people I photograph their pictures when I return. I met a man who had never held a picture of himself, and even though he had lost most of his ability to speak, he had a big warm laugh and a giant hug when I brought him his picture."

"Photography is recording images of others. Sometimes you are lucky and make a friend, but most often you arrive as an outsider and that is how you leave. The Delta refused to go along. I arrived as an outsider, but was drawn into its fabric until I felt like the family member who happened to have the camera. I was born in Spain, raised in Switzerland, lived my adult life in New York City, but the Delta and its people felt like home. I carry the deepest gratitude."

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Magdalena Solé: The tonality in Magdalena Sole’s images maps the experience of her work. Whether richly saturated or time worn, Sole uses color to encapsulate a range of feelings. She is known for her sensitive expressions of culture through distinctive color artistry.

Her work in the Delta was commissioned by The Dreyfus Health Foundation for a book titled, New Delta Rising: Photographs by Magdalena Solé, with an introduction by Rick Bragg (University Press of Mississippi, Fall 2011), and is part of her wider project, Forgotten Places, which includes images of Japan and Brazil. Magdalena has a Masters of Fine Art in Film from Columbia University.

Magdalena Solé Website