Perceptions of Southerners have been around as long as the South itself.
And the influence of photography and literature on these perceptions was the topic of a University of Memphis professor's lecture at the Dixon Gallery on Sunday.
Leigh Anne Duck, assistant professor of English, discussed the effects "You Have Seen Their Faces," a book by writer Erskine Caldwell and photographer, Margaret Bourke-White, had on perceptions of the South during the 1930s. The lecture was held in conjunction with the Dixon Gallery's exhibit of some of Bourke-White's photos.
Although her photos in "You Have Seen Their Faces" were meant to raise social awareness of Southern poverty, the captions that accompanied the photos often made the subjects look "backward and ridiculous," according to Duck.
Most of the captions were written as direct quotes of the people in the photos, but none were actually credited as such and were probably written solely by Caldwell, she said.
They suggested certain agendas and made it look as though "the poor South wasted what resources it had on tobacco and religion," she said.
Bourke-White became famous for her photographs of industrialization in the United States and the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. Her encounters with poverty in the U.S.S.R. inspired her to document the same problems in the United States, Duck said.
Having never been to the South before her work with Caldwell, who grew up in the South, Bourke-White felt like a foreigner around Southerners, according to Duck.
"Her perception of Southerners was basically formed by Caldwell," she said.
People who never lived in the South created many of the stereotypes of Southerners that existed in the past, according to Marilou Awiakta, a 70-year-old Cherokee-Appalachia poet and writer.
"People didn't have the chance to use their own words," she said.
Questions about how views of poverty and the South are influenced, like Duck's lecture, help to improve the perceptions of the region, said Awiakta, who attended Sunday's event.
"Movies and documentaries affect what people who have never been (to the South) before think," she said. "But people are more able to speak for themselves now, so I'm hopeful that (perception of the South) is getting better."
Segregation may be one reason why the South is seen as ignorant in the past, but corruption within our local government is the source now, said Trey Harrington, senior psychology major.
"Media and film are not as much as an influence as our political shortcomings," he said.
Negative perceptions of the South are mostly influenced by old stereotypes, according to Angela Lowe, sophomore biology major."
"There are lots of stereotypes of the South," she said. "I think a lot of it's because of our history and it gets passed from generation to generation."
The nation's most negative viewpoint of the South was from 1900 through the 1960s, according to James Chumney, associate professor of history.
While the perceptions of the South have improved since the Civil Rights Movement, mass media has become a major contributor of people's perceptions today, he said.
"Most of our opinions are formed by movies and TV, but it all depends on who is doing the talking," he said.
