Juke Joint. Photographs. Introductory Essay by Richard Ford.
Jackson; London: University Press of Mississippi, [1990].
Oblong quarto (26 x 28.5 cm.), 16 pages, 58 leaves, [3] pages. Illustrated with 58 color photographs. FIRST TRADE EDITION; there was also a deluxe issue of 126 copies. The first monograph from photographer Birney Imes (preceded by at least two exhibition catalogues. "Imes reveals a previously unexplored domain, the black juke joints of the Mississippi Delta country, and transforms this familiar phenomenon of Delta cultural life into something rich and strange. He has focused his camera on nearly empty rooms, yet these bluesy, almost peopleless photographs present black cafes, roadhouses, and taverns as folk art that resounds with energy and pulses with the joys and griefs of the clientele. The evocative place names in Imes's photographs sound as fascinating as the names of these juke joints which sprang up in the Delta landscape: the Pink Pony in Darling, Mississippi, the People's Choice Cafe in Leland, Monkey's Place in Merigold, the Evening Star Lounge in Shaw, the Playboy Club in Louise, Juicy's Place in Marcella, the Social Inn in Gunnison, Booba Burns' Place in Greenville, and A.D.'s Place in Glendora" (from the dust jacket). Publisher's green, blind- and gilt-titled cloth in an unclipped dust jacket. Fine. Promotional bookmark cum prospectus laid-in. Inscribed by the photographer on the title page, To Wayne Schroderus, Birney Imes" and with the bookmark of Jackson, Mississippi bookshop Lemuria laid-in.
Price: $250.00