This
has led to the creation of Delta Dogs is new collection of
photographs that captures the simple, desolate beauty of the Mississippi Delta.
Author William Ferris says Clay’s photos offer “a unique, powerful window on the Delta
landscape and the presence of dogs on it.”
Maude has spotted
and captured the elemental spirit of dogs eking out existences from this
majestic landscape. In her iconic book Delta
Land, Clay introduced the “Dog in the Fog,” the muscular lab standing watch
in the mist and trees of Cassidy Bayou. This photo became widely recognized,
and Clay wanted to further explore the relationship between the land and the
numerous dogs populating its fields, bayous, and abandoned spaces.
Featuring 70
duotone photographs, Delta Dogs celebrates the canines
who roam this most storied corner of Mississippi. Some of Clay’s photographs
feature lone dogs dwarfed by kudzu-choked trees and hidden among the brambles
adjacent to plowed fields. In others, dogs travel in amiable packs, trotting toward
a shared but mysterious adventure. Her Delta dogs are by turns soulful, eager,
wary, resigned, menacing, contented.
Writers Brad
Watson and Beth Ann Fennelly provide essays that ponder Clay’s dogs and their
connections to the Delta, speculating about their role in the drama of everyday
life and about their relationships to the humans who share this landscape with
them. In a photographer’s afterword, Clay writes about discovering the beauty of her native land from within. She finds that the ubiquitous presence of the Delta dog gives scale, life, and sometimes even whimsy and intent to her Mississippi landscape.
Maude
will be signing her new book at the following times and locations:
Wednesday, June 11, 5 p.m. at Turnrow Books
Thursday, June 12, 5 p.m. at Square Books
Saturday, June 14, 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. at Lemuria Books
Thursday, June 19, 6:00 p.m at Miss Del’s
Saturday, June 28, 2 - 4 p.m. at Lorelei Books
Tuesday, July 1, 4 - 6 p.m. at Pass Christian Books
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