Dain Photographs Highlight Faulkner Centennial

Photographs of William Faulkner and his world taken by Martin J. Dain will play a major role in celebrating this year's centennial of the author's birth. Plans are under way at the Center for two traveling exhibitions and a new book of the Dain photographs. Oxford author Larry Brown wrote the foreword for the book.

Dain, an ardent admirer of Faulkner, is one of the few who photographed the author at Rowan Oak, his home in Oxford, Mississippi. On his first visit to Oxford in 1961, Dain made numerous photographs of the town and the surrounding rural Lafayette County, inspiration for Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County. Dain returned in 1962 to photograph Faulkner's funeral and made additional images of Lafayette County.

"Of course, I'm very excited about the book and traveling exhibits of my images from the early '60s in Mississippi," said Dain, now retired, from his home in California. "I still read Faulkner, and I still think about my time attempting to evoke Faulkner's world. I can't remember a time when I didn't read Faulkner."

The almost 9,000 35mm black and white images Dain made of William Faulkner, Oxford, and Lafayette County are now owned by the Center and housed in its Southern Media Archive. Included in the collection are interior photographs of Faulkner's home, some of the few taken while Faulkner was living there, and approximately 150 different images of Faulkner, his horses, and his dogs near the stable at Rowan Oak. Dain also documented daily life among the blacks and whites throughout the county.

William Faulkner with horse, Rowan Oak 1962. Photograph by Martin J. Dain. © Center for the Study of Southern Culture, The University of Mississippi.

In 1964 Random House published many of these photographs, along with quotes from Faulkner's books, in Faulkner's County: Yoknapatawpha. The original book, now a collector's item, is worth anywhere from $80 to $125, according to Richard Howorth, owner of Oxford's Square Books. The new book of Dain photographs, Faulkner's World: The Photographs of Martin J. Dain, will be released in August by the University Press of Mississippi. In addition to Brown's foreword, the book will contain an introduction by Tom Rankin, associate professor of Art and Southern Studies at the University and editor of the book and curator of the exhibits, in which he discusses Dain's life and career as a photographer. While most of the 100 photographs were published in Dain's 1964 book, photographs from Faulkner's funeral will be added. This hardback edition will be distributed through bookstores, and the Center will have signed, limited editions available.

Many of these photographs comprise Faulkner's World: The Photographs of Martin J. Dain, A Traveling Exhibition Celebrating William Faulkner's 100th Birthday. Funding from the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), and the University of Mississippi Sesquicentennial Committee provides for two traveling exhibitions of 40 black and white photographs, accompanied by interpretive text. One will travel to libraries, galleries, cultural centers, and colleges and universities in the 13-state ARC region after opening in New Albany, Mississippi, during the town's Faulkner celebration. The Mississippi exhibit opens at the University Museums during the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in late July and will then travel the state for two years.

"A traveling exhibition of the Dain photographs will commemorate Faulkner's 100th birthday while providing a chance for people throughout the region to witness compelling photographs by Martin Dain," said Rankin. "Dain's photographs offer a true image of the world in which William Faulkner wrote."

Persons interested in scheduling the traveling exhibit of Dain photographs should contact Karen Glynn, assistant director of the Southern Media Archive, at 601-232-7811.

Jennifer Bryon Owen