The book features stunning photography that captures the transformation and revitalization of Memphis, Tennessee. It showcases the city's dynamic evolution, highlighting its cultural resurgence and the vibrant spirit of its communities. Through these images, readers can explore the unique character and rich history of modern Memphis, reflecting both its challenges and triumphs.
In the mid 1970s, Larry McPherson made a series of photographs of cows grazing at a Midwestern farm, in the natural oak savannahs on the Illinois-Wisconsin border. The images, some made in daytime and some at night, capture a range of bovine activities and moods, and a classic landscape. They became the subject of a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago and traveled with several group shows. Thirty years later, this distinctive and insightful series is in book form for the first time. In the interim, McPherson, born in Newark, Ohio, in 1943, has published two other photographic books, Memphis and Beirut City Center , received two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and a Guggenheim fellowship, and has seen his work acquired for many public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The Lebanese Civil War dominated life in Beirut from 1975 until 1990. When it ended, a massive rebuilding began, with the goal of making its Central District the finest city center in the Middle East. In 2002 Larry E. McPherson was commissioned to document this transition. Between 2002 and 2004 he spent a total of six months there, and his understated, visually affectionate photographs convey the natural beauty of Beirut's position between the Mediterranean and Lebanon's snow covered mountains. Beirut City Center encompasses archeological sites made into public areas, gardens, perfectly restored Ottoman and French architecture, and elegantly integrated new construction, and conveys both the practical and symbolic importance of building again.