Straight into Darkness: Southern Gothic Photography

The UWF College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities invites you to save the date for Thursday, January 29, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Pensacola Museum of Art in downtown Pensacola for an evening with Richard McCabe, Curator of Photography at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, as part of the 2025–2026 Gulf Coast Culture Series: Pensacola Noir.

McCabe’s presentation, Straight into Darkness: Southern Gothic Photography, traces the development of Southern Gothic imagery from the 1930s to the present. Highlighting the work of photographers such as Clarence John Laughlin, William Christenberry, E.J. Bellocq, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, William Eggleston, Sally Mann, Mike Brodie, and RaMell Ross, McCabe examines how light and shadow shape our understanding of the South’s beauty and complexity.

Drawing from his background as a photographer, writer, and curator, McCabe connects Southern photography to its literary and cinematic roots in the works of Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, and films such as Deliverance and Cape Fear. His talk explores how the region’s stories of darkness, contrast, and redemption continue to shape its artistic identity.

Since 2011, McCabe has curated more than forty exhibitions for the Ogden Museum, including New Southern Photography and Memory is a Strange Bell: The Art of William Christenberry. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Time, and NPR.

The evening will begin with introductory remarks from Dr. David Earle, Dean of CASSH, on the Gothic’s enduring presence in Southern art and literature.