Video and Event Celebrate Paul Kwilecki’s “One Place”

Though artistic and ambitious, Paul Kwilecki (1928-2009) chose to remain in Bainbridge, Georgia, the small Decatur County town where he was born, raised, and ran the family’s hardware store. He had always been interested in photography and taught himself how to use a camera. Kwilecki developed his visual ideas in series of photographs of high school proms, prison hog killings, shade-tree tobacco farming, factory work, church life, the courthouse. He also wrote eloquently about the people and places he so poignantly depicted, and in One Place: Paul Kwilecki and the Four Decades of Photographs from Decatur County, Georgia his unique knowledge is powerfully articulated in more than 200 photographs and selected prose.

This Thursday, April 25 from 6–9 p.m. the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University is holding a reception in celebration of Kwilecki and this month’s publication of One Place. As part of the event, the book’s editor and CDS Director Tom Rankin will be speaking and signing books. In preparation for the event, CDS digital arts and publishing intern Joel Mora created a multimedia slideshow featuring some of Kwilecki’s photographs, the high praise the collection has received from authors and artists alike, and a recent interview with Rankin:

The reception will be held at 1317 W. Pettigrew St. in downtown Durham. Before Rankin’s talk, guests will have an opportunity to walk through an exhibit displaying selected photos from One Place. The exhibit, with the same name as the book, will be on view at CDS through July 27, 2013.