In the News

Huffington Post  Nature Adds a Psychedelic Spin to Lucinda Bunnen’s Photography  -July 2015 …”I don’t go looking for specific things. I think I just find things,” she told SXSE’s Barbara Griffin. “Things just drop out of the sky…maybe if you’re open enough to see it, to feel it, to hear it, to know that’s what you’re looking for, you get it.”

Wynn Bullock Photography, Brett Abott, Keough Family Curator of Photography and Head of Collections, High Museum of Art Atlanta, interviewed by Barbara Griffin In South x Southeast photomagazine -June 2014 …Barbara Griffin: What made you fall in love with photography?  Brett Abbott: My father was an amateur photographer. He’s a pediatrician, but he had a darkroom in the house when I was growing up. I still remember the darkroom; kind of a magical place…

Christian Harkness Photo Blog -November 2013 As I mentioned earlier my photo essay is in the November/December issue of the South X Southeast Photomagzine [SXSE]. The magazine is an on-line and in print publication. If you are a Southern photographer, or interested in Southern photography, I …

APhotoEditor -May 2012  …everyone said print was dead and I would have to publish online. I don’t think print is dead at all, but it never hurts to listen. So, we decided to publish monthly online first, for economics as well as discovery. The print edition was still on the drawing board as to frequency, content, etc. After the first issue my blatantly honest focus group all said, “This is gorgeous, but when’s the print edition coming out?” So, in December, we began producing print, a composite of images from our first quarter…

La Lettre de la Photographie Interview with Nancy McCrary -May 2012 by Virginie Kippelin (La Lettre de la Photographie is now L’Oeil de la Photographie. To read the interview in its entirety please go to the bottom of this page.)

Place, Race, & Memory: South x Southeast Magazine & Photography in the South, by John Edwin Mason -June 2011 …The current issue is its first, but it already has the feel of a mature publication, at least as far as the photography is concerned.  This is no random collection of pretty Southern pictures.  By design, the portfolios speak to each other, and, in doing so, they make a pretty solid case that there is something distinctive about Southern photography.  This distinctiveness, it seems to me, revolves around place, race, and memory. 

South X Southeast Photo Magazine about to Launch -June 2011South X Southeast Photo Magazine about to Launch. Nancy McCrary, Publisher of the new magazine South by Southeast, announces that her magazine will appear on July 1st, 2011, and monthly thereafter. Nancy describes …

THE SOUTHERN PHOTOGRAPHER: THE BLOG ABOUT FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH by John Wall

The Southern Photographer: S[x]SE for Late Spring 2015

South by Southeast — S[x]SE — for Early Spring 2015

S[x]SE for Winter 2015 — the Love and War Issue

The Southern Photographer: S[x]SE for Late Fall, 2014

The Southern Photographer: S[x]SE for Early Fall 2014

The Southern Photographer: S[x]SE for Summer 2014

The Southern Photographer: S[x]SE for May/June 2014

The Southern Photographer: S[x]SE for March 2014

The Southern Photographer: S[x]SE for January 2014

The Southern Photographer: SxSE for Fall and Winter 2013

for more articles from The Southern Photographer please go to http://southphotography.blogspot.com/

The La Lettre de la Photographie Interview with Nancy McCrary by Virginie Kippelen, 2011:

SXSE magazine showcases photography in the Southeast. What would you say is specific about the South and Southeast of the United States?

Like other regions of the U.S. the Southeast has distinct qualities – with this much geography and history it’s difficult not to.  Specific characteristics that come to mind revolve around the Civil War, still known in these parts as “the unpleasantness”; the quirkiness of people and traditions arising from a genealogical melting pot, and reflected in our arts, literature, food, manners, etc.; the genesis of blues and jazz, and our contribution to rock ‘n roll; and, not least, the beauty of the landscape.

How did you come up with the idea of publishing a photo magazine?

I have been in niche magazines for a long time, everything from dogs to tattoos and I love what I do. It’s a business I understand. I grew up on the farm where I now reside, and as a child my mother was adamant that we, my sister and I, would be well-read – despite the fact that back then access to books and magazines was difficult in rural America. I started with a subscription to Highlights and moved on to Time, Life, NatGeo and many others, growing up. I loved waiting on the mailman and chasing the bookmobile.

So, having the opportunity to work in magazines as an adult was quite wonderful.

My second love has always been art, with photography as a focus. It’s been my pleasure to serve as a co-director of SlowExposures, a photography festival celebrating the rural South, over the last eight years. During that time, SlowExposures has received over 700 images annually for our juried competition, and we have been introduced to a sizeable number of talented photographers either from the South or who traveled here to photograph facets of Southern life. Over the years we’ve heard the same complaint from many of them: there are so few venues in which to show their work. Magazines can present work to a greater audience than any other outlet. From these thoughts, and more, an idea for a photography magazine focusing on each region came to mind.

 From what I understand, you live an hour south of Atlanta, in a farm, with your family. How do you manage to be in touch with all the happenings? 

Between high-speed internet, and a two lane highway that ends at the 5th runway of Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport in under an hour, I manage pretty well. The farm lies in the lower Piedmont region of Georgia, a beautiful part of the South, and a well kept secret. I love urban life, but as I’ve grown older I’ve come to appreciate a blend of urban and rural.

You started publishing back in July 2011, with an online presence complemented with a nice quarterly, 80-page or so print edition. Can you explain how you decided to go with this dual format?

Well, I did the smartest thing I could think of when pouring all my money into one pot, the oh-so casual dinner-party focus group of my most candid photographer friends, where everyone said print was dead and I would have to publish online. I don’t think print is dead at all, but it never hurts to listen. So, we decided to publish monthly online first, for economics as well as discovery. The print edition was still on the drawing board as to frequency, content, etc. After the first issue my blatantly honest focus group all said, “This is gorgeous, but when’s the print edition coming out?” So, in December, we began producing print, a composite of images from our first quarter. Our print editions are currently produced on demand by HP MagCloud. In reproducing other artists’ work we take quality very seriously, and what they produce is somewhere between a magazine and a coffee table book. A very good product, and at a decent price.

And, in addition to the print, all articles are archived online indefinitely.

You are covering new and emerging artists, gallery openings, you are showcasing work via videos, blogs, technical novelties. Is this the recipe for engaging a wide audience?

Again, we queried our customers, a network of photographers on what they would like to see in a regional publication. Their answers revolved around all of the above, but were consistent in their desire to see it all presented on a regional basis. They wanted a publication that would show them everything from upcoming gallery and museum exhibitions in this region, to where to buy gear locally, to upcoming events within quick travel time for a weekend shoot, festivals and exhibitions in the area, etc. I think the wonderful global awareness we have today has encouraged a conversely wonderful grass roots awareness – a lovely sense of pride.

The original content has evolved, sometimes in the space of a month, and will continue to as the publication grows. Along with all else you mention above, our two newest columns are Notes from a Contributing Editor, and Collector. Notes focuses on alternative process photography. Our readers are interested in alt-process, so besides chronicling the early history of photography we’ve had an interview with Christopher James, author of the series The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, as well as a dialogue with S. Gayle Stevens and Judy Sherrod who have built their own camera to make 20-inch by 20-inch wet-plate collodion tintypes. Our Collector column interviews a photography collector in the region with questions regarding his/her collection as well as advice to new collectors and photographers.

Who are the photographers who have best represented the South, according to you?

The South has never had a shortage of creative talent from which to choose. That said, I would find it hard to answer that question without discussing Eudora Welty, William Eggleston, William Christenberry, Harry Callahan, and Walker Evans, among others. These are a few of the ones who just got it. They knew the South like the back of their hands and were able to convey that in a most admirable way. My generation has contributed to this league, also, in Shelby Lee Adams, Mike Smith, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Birney Imes, Keith Carter, Maude Schuyler Clay, Jack Spencer, Sally Mann, Chip Simone, Tim Barnwell, Shelby Lee Adams, Thomas Neff, and Dave Anderson. And the generation following us has some uncommon new talent such as Laura Noel, Kathleen Robbins, Eliot Dudik, Daniel Shea, Misty Keasler, Anne Berry, Sheila Pree Bright, Vicki Hunt, Joanna Knox, Anderson Scott, Phil Nesmith … I could go on and on. And thus … the reason for the magazine.

How do you select the photographers who will be published in your magazine? And how to you submit work?

Our issues begin with an idea – a season, a location, an event – and something organic grows from that each time. Each issue is like writing a little book. It can be exhausting, but is equally rewarding.

Beginning with this month, we are “outsourcing” a bit, engaging new sets of eyes to bring us what they see. We’ve lined up a series of Guest Curators who are either photographers, gallerists, curators, authors, or collectors who will each take on the editorial responsibility of one issue. They will choose the nine to12 feature photographers, and either choose or make suggestions for the columns. In our May issue our Guest Curator was Jerry Atnip, someone who is not only a fine art and commercial photographer in the South, but a man who wears the hats of designer, critical reviewer, mentor and supporter of the arts. The May issue is all about his hometown of Nashville, and their world of fine art photography. From nine talented masters and emerging artists in our Features, to Nashville galleries and museums, books published by some of our featured artists, a collector’s interview, and a profile of an arts magazine. This is a formula we hope to replicate with other Guest Curators.

The June issue’s theme is of graduating seniors with either a photography major or emphasis, from Southern schools and universities. Texas, that curious blend of South and Southwest, will be the subject in July, curated by Steve Clark of the Stephen Clark Gallery. Gabrielle Larew of DOMA Gallery in Charlotte will curate our September issue. And October brings us to our political issue, with both Democratic and Republican presidential conventions being held in the South.