Black-and-white photograph (mounted), pencil signed and dated "A. Harris 1971" to the mount, matted and framed.

Sheet Size 8 1/2 x 5 5/8 in.; DOA 16 1/4 x 14 1/4 in.

From the Estate of the late Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, Durham, NC

Alex Harris is one of the most important and prolific photographers living in North Carolina. He is also a nationally-recognized writer, teacher, and documentarian. Harris graduated from Yale University in 1971 and was a student of Walker Evans. His photography projects have taken him to New Mexico, North Carolina, Alaska, and Cuba, and he often photographs people in everyday scenarios while rethinking the concept of ordinariness. Harris founded the Center for Documentary Photography at Duke University in 1980, where he currently teaches. He has exhibited at museums including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the International Center of Photography, New York; the Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, where there there is currently an exhibition on view; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, where there is a forthcoming exhibition.

This photograph is from a series Harris completed in 1971-72 for Duke University's Institute of Policy Sciences and Public Affairs. The series documents substandard housing and living conditions in rural North Carolina. Beginning the project immediately after his graduation from Yale, Harris was encouraged by his teacher Walker Evans, who advised students to look past classroom and museum settings to find inspiration in "the life of the streets."

Good estate condition; light frame wear; not examined out of frame.

$500 - 1,000