TRAVELING EXHIBITION starting June 16, 2025
Where Earth Meets Sky — The Mississippi Delta | An Exploration of the Deep South
The Mississippi Delta is an exploration of communities in the South. The Delta is an iconic region lying between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, running from Memphis, TN to Vicksburg, MS, a place that evokes visions of sharecroppers, plantations and, of course, the sound of the Blues. A small wealthy gentry coexists with a large impoverished underclass living in dilapidated houses and tilting trailers. Its community is very conscious of its own identity and its racial diversity.
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Solé is a social documentary photographer on a quest of simple everyday beauty in regions outside the mainstream. She is drawn by peoples’ resilience and resourcefulness in the face of adversity. In this series she not only tells the story of people who make do with little, she shows their dignity, uniqueness, and spirit. The quietness and silence that characterizes the South is palpable in her pictures. It is a place where changes do not happen fast. Death seems to be the only inevitable that rips change into people’s lives. Change is met with apprehension, nobody wants to risk losing what little they have, and shake the delicate balance that holds everything together.
It is a place that Solé crisscrossed while driving tens of thousands of miles, camera in hand, cherishing the beauty of the vast horizons and its people.
From Rick Bragg’s Introduction to her award-winning book titled New Delta Rising, published by the University Press of Mississippi:
“The Delta, while I am sure there are dreams here that have yet to die hard, was made, constructed, not imagined. It was hacked out of a vast, dark, primeval forest, and transformed by pain and blood and muscle, in an age of human bondage. Men felled the trees and burned the stumps and turned this wide, flat place into a landscape of forever fields, of cotton rows that stretched farther than a strong man could pick in a day.
It is not, despite appearances, the end of nowhere. The empty fields are its destination. The weeds let you know where one crop ends and another begins. While other man-made places were covered in people and concrete, here it was the dirt that mattered, and there was just so much of it, between porch lights, and schools, and hospitals. There still is. In the open land between the towns and the wide places in the road, dark drops like a lid on a box, and that very isolation has shaped life here, held it, and marked it deeply and sometimes horribly.
Its loneliness would be a stage for some of the most chilling moments in the struggle for civil rights. Its rivers would give up their dead; its nowhere roads hold secrets still. It would be called the most Southern place on earth, and I do not believe that meant teacakes and cotillions.
Here, the poverty hits you between the eyes like a hurled chunk of loose asphalt. It is one of the poorest places in the United States, where deep pockets of wealth are surrounded by third-world houses, tilting mobile homes, and one of the saddest infant mortality rates in the industrialized world.”
About the Artist
Magdalena Solé is a photographer, book artist and filmmaker.
Her photography touches on themes of the displaced and the hidden, societies living on the margins and places forgotten, or shunned by the mainstream. She creates visual narratives inspired by cultural disparity, expressed through distinctive color artistry. The Wall Street Journal called Solé’s images: “lushly colorful, formally striking, restless, and electrifying.”
Her work has been shown internationally in fifty exhibitions, including over twenty solo presentations. She worked as unit production manager for the movie Man on Wire, which won an Academy Award in 2009. She is author of several books, including New Delta Rising and Cuba: hasta siempre, both published by the University Press of Mississippi. Her work can be found in museums and institutional collections in the United States and Switzerland.
Solé was born in Spain, raised in Switzerland, and lived in New York City for more than thirty years before moving to the deep countryside of Vermont. Visual language has been her life’s work. She earned her MFA in film from Columbia University, New York, and has worked as a professional photographer, book artist and filmmaker.
For the past decade she has continued to document life in the Mississippi Delta. She has also photographed Irish Travellers’ communities in Ireland, as well religious devotion and the pilgrimage of El Rocío in the South of Spain. Much of her time has been spent photographing in Japan: forlorn places such as Kamagasaki in Osaka, the aftermath of the great Tsunami, capturing the passage of time at a Zen temple in northern Japan, photographing the most remote of places.
Tour Schedule
Where Earth Meets the Sky is touring from June 2025 through May 2032. The dates below reflect seven-week exhibition periods.
June 16–August 11, 2025
available
September 1–October 20, 2025
available
November 10, 2026–January 7, 2027
available
January 28–March 16, 2027
available
June 16–August 11, 2027
available
September 1–October 20, 2027
available
November 10, 2027–January 7, 2028
available
January 28–March 16, 2028
available
April 6–May 25, 2028
available
June 16–August 11, 2028
available
September 1–October 20, 2028
available
November 10, 2028–January 7, 2029
available
January 28–March 16, 2029
available
April 6–May 25, 2029
available
June 16–August 11, 2029
available
September 1–October 20, 2029
available
November 10 –January 7, 2029
available
January 28–March 16, 2030
available
April 6–May 25, 2030
available
June 16–August 11, 2030
available
September 1–October 20, 2030
available
November 10, 2030–January 7, 2031
available
January 28–March 16, 2031
available
April 6–May 25, 2031
available
June 16–August 11, 2031
available
September 1–October 20, 2031
available
November 10, 2031–January 7, 2032
available
January 28–March 16, 2032
available
April 6–May 25, 2032
available
EXHIBITION DETAILS
The exhibition comes framed and crated with accompanying designed captions and text panels that need to be produced by the venue. Advance materials in digital format include a marketing packet, exhibition checklist, case list, condition reports, and an educational guide. A limited supply of hardcover books, to accompany the exhibition, is available from the University Press of Mississippi, for exhibitors to sell in retail venues. The photographer is able to attend openings or educational programs, such as talks or panel discussions organized by host institutions, and SolePictures is happy to facilitate those arrangements.
Exhibitor’s responsibilities
The participating venue is responsible for the exhibition fee, shipping, and insurance coverage while the work is in the institution. We require a certificate of insurance and facilities report from each participating venue. Our contract details arrangements with exhibitors regarding security, environmental controls, and other aspects of hosting an exhibition according to standard museum practices.
Content
When you host a SolePictures’ exhibition, you will receive a range of support materials that not only will facilitate installation but will include a publicity and educational kit.
Press Kit
Registrar’s Packet
Programming Guide
Text Panels
Narrative Labels
Installation Instructions
Custom-Designed and-Built Crates
Curated and Organized by
SolePictures, LLC, Magdalena Solé
Rental Fee
$5500
Shipping
Van line
Exhibitor will pay a flat shipping fee of $800 to cover all shipping expenses for the exhibition.
Additional Options:
Book: New Delta Rising by Magdalena Solé, Publisher: University Press of Mississippi 2011
ISBN: 978-1617031502
Artists’ talk: The Making of the Book; a journey through the South
Running Feet
Up to 200 linear feet / 48 framed color prints
Number of Crates/Total Weight
3 crates/675 pounds
Insurance
We require a certificate of insurance and facilities report from each participating venue.
How do I schedule an exhibition?
Exhibitions are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis according to availability and the capability of your institution to host the exhibition. Your institution’s facility report must be reviewed and approved by SolePictures and your institution must meet the security requirements. A 25% deposit is required with the signed contract. All remaining exhibition rental fees are due in full on the day the exhibition opens.
Inquire about booking:
Previous Delta Exhibitions
THE SOUTHEAST MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY, DAYTONA, FL, US
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 Baum Gallery at the University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR. American Roots: The Delta
2015 Griffin Museum of Photograpy, Winchester, MA. Mississippi Delta
2013 The Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, FL. Mississippi Delta
2013 The Cassidy Bayou Gallery, Sumner, MS. The Delta
2013 Leica Gallery, New York, NY. The Mississippi Delta
2012 Sous Les Etoiles Gallery Soho, New York, NY. The Mississippi Delta
2012 The Gallery at WilJax. Cleveland, MS The Delta
2012 Doma Gallery, Charlotte, NC Dante and the Delta with Mike Smith
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Eyes On Mainstreet, Wilson, NC
2023 Eyes On Mainstreet, Wilson, NC
2021 Lake City Creative Alliance, Lake City, SC, Southbound
2021 Windgate Museum of Art at Hendrix College, Conway, AR. Southbound
2020 MAX Museum, Meridian, MS. Southbound
2020 Meridian Museum of Art, Meridian, MS. Southbound
2020 Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN. Southbound
2020 - 2021 LSU Museum of Art at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. Southbound
2019 Gregg Museum of Art & Design at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. Southbound
2019 Power Plant Gallery at Duke University, Durham, NC. Southbound
2018 - 2019 Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston NC. Southbound
2017 T3 Photo Festival Tokyo, Japan. American Roots: The Delta
2017 United Photo Industries Gallery, Dumbo / TICP 2016, Brooklyn, NY. American Roots: The Delta
2016- 2017 Morris Museum, Augusta, GA. Southbound
2016 Gillman Barracks, Singapore — Presented by Tokyo International Photography Festival —TICP 2016: Origin
2015 Tipton Street Gallery at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Behind the Lens: Women Photographers on Appalachia and the South
2014 Castell Photography Gallery, Asheville, NC. Next: New Photographic Visions
2012 Gallery at the Courthouse, Clarksdale, MS. Southern Expressions
2011 Denver Airport, Denver CO. Center Forward
2011 The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO. Center Forward
2011 The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO. Human + Being
2011 The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO. Blue
2011 Slow Exposures, Zebulon, GA. The South
2011 Fine Art Museum Zhengzhou, China. Another America