Welty, an exhibit featuring photographs and stories by Eudora Welty, opened July 11 at the Prentiss Public Library.

During the 1930s Eudora Welty traveled over her native state of Mississippi as a publicist for the Works Progress administration, photographing scenes and people that interested her.

A few years later her writing career was well-launched, and her camera put away. It was not until the 1970s that the photographs were examined for their relationship to Welty’s writing.

The juxtaposition of photographs and text offers a rare insight into the creative process.

The scenes that caught the photographer’s eye were images that settled into her being and became a source of her literary art.

Through the alchemy of Welty’s genius and vision the images were transformed into lush passages of fiction.

The exhibit of twelve photographs were selected from over 1,200 Welty negatives on file in the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

The use of Welty’s fiction makes this a literary as well as a photographic exhibition. It is an opportunity to see how a single sensibility uses two media of expression.

The exhibit will be on display through July 31. The Prentiss Public Library is located at 2229 Pearl Avenue and is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Welty was produced by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. For more information about this exhibit or the traveling exhibits program, contact the Mississippi Department of Archives and History at exhibits@mdah.ms.gov or visit https://www.mdah.ms.gov/explore-mississippi/traveling-exhibits.