Probably it was when a friend gave me a book of stories by Flannery O'Connor that my imagination was invaded by the cocktail of religion, sex, death, loneliness, hopefulness and hopelessness, beauty and criminality that generally appear to make up certain inner recesses of the southern US imagination. I read Poachers stories, by Tom Franklin and Truman Capotes "In Cold Blood", I've recently watched the documentary 'Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus', we all know Shelby Lee Adams (You've got to check out his blog) and there's the poetic "Sleeping by the Mississippi" by Alec Soth (look for the articles and related footnotes at the end of the slideshow).
Submitted by Philip Cartland on 24 November 2007 - 9:43pm.