Al Satterwhite
The images in Southern Exposure, Al Satterwhite's newest book project, and the portfolio for the April, 2021, edition of Dek Unu Magazine, draw from an archive of over 800 images, created in the first few years of a career that has spanned over 60 years. The project, outtakes from Satterwhite's work as a news photographer and from his wanderings around the South, collects sights from daily life in the Sixties, showing what has changed and what has not. From his beginnings at the Saint Petersburg (Florida) Times, he parlayed his craft and his exceptional vision into documentary and editorial photography for all the "big" magazines later in his career.
"The '60s and '70s in the South was really a time of change, as it was for the entire country. There was turmoil, but I also remember a certain Southern hospitality, a willingness to just talk or hang out. For me, Saint Petersburg was nice enough, but the pace was slow and I wanted more. I had a camera, so I set about to discover the world around me. Never again was I a bored teenager. Each alleyway, each neighborhood block had a different story to tell. As a visually-oriented person, I wanted to tell those stories in the best way I could, through my lens. People my age were starting to speak up, protest, and wear their hair long. My shoulder-length hair attracted some stares, but I seldom ran into situations I couldn't talk my way out of, usually with a smile and, "Hey, can I take your picture, I'm from the local paper."