The Picture Man : Paul Buchanan

Tuesday, 31 January 2006 10:09

Asheville, NC- The Asheville Art Musem presents the photographs of Paul Buchanan (1910-1987). Buchanan was born and lived in the Mitchell County mountain town of Hawk, North Carolina. He learned photography from his father, “Fate” Buchanan, who worked as a part-time professional photographer. “My daddy, he imparted it,” Paul said in a 1985 interview with photographer Ann Hawthorne. “He’s the onlyest man around this county anywhere that done that kind of work. Fate Buchanan - everybody always called him ‘Picture-Taking Fate’. And that’s what they called me: ‘Picture-Taking Paul’.” In the 1920s, ‘Picture-Taking Paul’ started working professionally as a photographer and traveled in the mountain counties of Mitchell, Yancey, Avery and McDowell. He wasn’t trying to be an artist, just trying to make money. But the pictures that he took have an intense honesty that blurs the line between livelihood and art. Buchanan started photographing people in 1926 and continued for 30 years until 1951. He never told his subjects what to wear, how to pose or what to hold. The images show often unidentified men, women and children in the high country where Buchanan worked, and they are seen as they want to be seen. These photographs give the viewer a sense of history, the reality of the place and time when ‘Picture-Taking Paul’ worked. The exhibition is Guest Curated by Ann Hawthorne and organized by the Asheville Art Museum. Visit : www.ashevilleart.org

---

Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~