Courtesy of Davion Alston and the Atlanta Center for Photography
What do outré Pink Flamingos director John Waters and poetic R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe have in common?
Both have a side hustle as photographers. And both have visited Atlanta to talk about their artistic vision and share this under-the-radar side of their creative output. For 26 years, creatives like Waters and Stipe (along with such photo luminaries as Annie Leibovitz, Gregory Crewdson, and Larry Sultan) have come to Atlanta at the behest of one of the city’s formative arts organizations: Atlanta Celebrates Photography.
Founded in 1998, the organization’s goal is to promote Atlanta’s importance as a photo-centric town. “It has become an integral part of a pretty strong photography community,” says Joe Massey, an arts patron and early supporter of Atlanta Celebrates Photography through his family’s H.B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust.
Atlanta Celebrates Photography is best known for its annual monthlong photography festival in October. “The festival allowed people from all walks of life, no matter what they do, who have a love for photography to discover Jackson Fine Art, the High Museum of Art, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, all these places that they may not normally go,” says Amy Miller, who helmed the organization for 14 years. “That was one of the most important aspects of the festival.”
But, like so many arts organizations dealing with a changing funding landscape (as in, less money to go around from grant sources), Atlanta Celebrates Photography has recently reinvented itself, moving away from its focus on the signature festival. (The festival will remain, but with a shorter run.)
Rebranding as the Atlanta Center for Photography, the reimagined organization will feature a more year-round approach. That mission is anchored in its first brick-and-mortar…
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