Jerry Siegel’s color photographs of Deep South beauty queens dolled up in ringlets and bedazzled gowns, pastoral landscapes and country restaurants decorated with the owner’s collection of taxidermied deer heads could have been shot in 1950 or 1970 or today.
In these contemporary portraits of Alabama, an air of timelessness reigns, a sense that things have always unfolded in this way and will continue to hew to long-established traditions and rituals, for better or worse. In Siegel-country, men will hunt and hang the stuffed remains of their prey on wood-paneled walls, young girls will brush their hair to a glossy sheen and deliver wide, frozen smiles for a panel of town elders, and downtowns with their discount meat and general stores will die slow, painful deaths as residents flock to bigger, fluorescent-lit name-brand behemoths.