Jack Leigh • Oystering: A Way of Life
Charleston, South Carolina: Carolina Art Association, 1983. Hardcover. Edgecomb gray boards with titles stamped in black to spine and front. Foreword by James Dickey. Full-page black-and-white photographs throughout.
VG. Clean, square, and tight. Bright pages. Free of markings. Negligible sticker shadow to front free endpaper. Dust jacket shows mild edge wrinkles.
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The ebb and flow of centuries have shaped and reshaped life upon the coastal wetlands of South Carolina, giving vent to unique and sustaining character, a character born of a balance and an understanding that only what is needed is taken. The human lifestyles that have evolved in the tidelands have been rooted in this knowledge of give and take: that nature will provide and provide abundantly - if cared for and nurtured. In keeping, the human beings who have acted on this provision have long cultivated this delicate balance, this natural communion.
Oystering as it is now practiced on the rivers and islands of South Carolina's low country is done in virtually the same manner as it was practiced by the first settlers who carved dugouts from the huge cypress logs and gathered the oysters by hand. The oysterman's boat is a rough-hewn, flat-bottomed vessel known as a bateau. Rugged and river-worthy, these boats, with their long, wide shape, fit perfectly the nature of their function: to receive enormous loads of oysters. They must be loaded with skill and precision; an improperly balanced boat might tip and sink in the choppy water of the incoming tide... (From the Introduction by Jack Leigh)
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During the Winter of 1979, Jack Leigh began photographing the oystering people of coastal South Carolina. In the next two years, Mr. Leigh returned to the islands to photograph a lifestyle rapidly succumbing to the changing times. Island life was in transition; the old ways were on the way out. In preserving on film this century old tradition, Mr. Leigh captured a presence and a spirit vanishing from the river - a way of life going the way of time and memory.
Jack Leigh was influenced mainly by the photographs from the Farm Security Administration. Later study included workshops with Eva Rubinstein and Jill Freedman.
