Prospect Gallery, a new art gallery in downtown Hattiesburg, opens its doors with Adam Shemper’s retrospective photography exhibition, ‘Light in These Hills’—an homage and record of his life as a young photographer/writer in Oxford’s vibrant arts and literary community.
Hattiesburg, Miss. – Prospect Gallery is pleased to announce its debut show, “Light in These Hills: Oxford, Mississippi,” a retrospective photography exhibit by Adam Shemper.
Shemper’s photographs will be on view for two months, with an opening reception on November 2, 2024. Adapted from his book of the same title (forthcoming 2025), this exhibition of 40 photographs features landscapes and scenes of cultural life in Oxford, at Ole Miss, and in surrounding Lafayette County, made between 1998 and 2015. These documentary-style images are interwoven with portraits of neighbors, friends, and immediate family as well as local artists and icons, notably Ron “Ronzo” Shapiro, musicians Kinny and David Kimbrough Jr., Charlie Mars, and Tyler Keith, and writers Barry Hannah, Larry Brown, and Beth Ann Fennelly.
The “Light in These Hills: Oxford, Mississippi” exhibition was born from an inspired family collaboration between David Shemper, the founder of Prospect Gallery at Prospect on Main, and his sister Rachel Shemper Schwartz, gallery curator, and their brother Adam Shemper, the artist.
Adam Shemper was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1975. He is a photographer, writer, and psychotherapist. In his early working years he was a frequent contributor to the Oxford American. Since then he has published stories and photographs in national and international magazines and newspapers, and contributed images to film and television. Selected photographs from his series “Sardis Lake” were included in the International Center of Photography’s 2003 exhibit Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self. An image from his series “Portraits of Invisible Men” was included (2016) in the Academy Award-nominated Netflix documentary 13th. His work is profoundly influenced by his background growing up with familial ties to California and deep roots in the South’s Jewish community. His studio, Kingfisher, is in Healdsburg, California.
Prospect Gallery is part of Prospect on Main, a newly-renovated historic building in downtown Hattiesburg’s theatre and arts district. This new exhibition gallery will be a cultural hub for artists with Southern roots. “Our vision is to create a space to explore and deepen our engagement with Southern art and the artist’s process,” said Rachel Shemper Schwartz, Prospect Gallery’s curator. “The gallery will be a place where creativity comes alive in ways that reflect nuanced connections between art, culture and community.” The gallery officially opens to the public on November 2, 2024.
