New Delta Rising by Magdalena Solé

The Mississippi Delta is a nitch of fertile land tucked between the great Mississippi River on one side and the Yazoo River on the other. It found its identity in the rise of plantations over two centuries ago, from sugar cane, rice, tobacco and indigo in the 18th century to its greatest success with cotton in the 19th century. Before the Civil War, this area was a hot spot for African American slavery when the delta was overwhelmed with a flood of farmers in the prime of their time, filthy rich and proud of it. Today, supersized corporations have taken over their small towns with machinery driven farming, the need for the plantation way of life has long since left with just a remnant of the way it was.

Magdalena Sole has taken us on a colorful journey through The Mississippi Delta. Her photographs are a documentary from her experience after living there for a year. Truly southern, the community is recognizable by the long draws in their speech, homes worn out from flood and financial stress. We can see a child peeking out the window framed with a lovely couch, a woman posing after sweeping her well kept porch, a line of laundry with a content pup.  She found the happy: the green lawns, cherry red storefronts, pretty braids in a child’s hair with tangerine barrettes. Her images portray the sense of family they have in each other. Their guards down, their shirts off.  So honest, we can see the fancy that was, those long gone plantation days.

This is just a piece of her book project New Delta Rising which won the Silver Award in the Prix de la Photography Paris.