Friday, August 23, 2019

Images of Limestone County in iconic black and white photographs stop time with the snap of a camera, capturing life in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. A woman enjoying her sunflowers. A young girl playing in the front yard of a sharecropper’s house. Log Cabin Grocery serving customers as they walk by Coca-Cola and Pepsi signs. The photographs are the work of the late Mary Jean Hammons, a graduate of Tanner High School, who moved to New York to explore her interest in the arts. On her trips home, she photographed ordinary people and sites around Limestone County. In 2018, the Hammons family approached High Cotton Arts photographer Randall Lewter about making prints from old negatives they discovered. Lewter, who enjoys photographing historic sites and old buildings, agreed to not only curate and make prints but also create an Eye on The South Exhibit at High Cotton Arts to share the work of Jean Hammons with the community.