Media
The Pruitt Project in the news, schools and communities.
Salvation South
Making Sense of Mississippi
O.N. Pruitt was the “picture man” where journalist Berkley Hudson grew up. Pruitt’s photographs helped Hudson understand the state he ran away from — and the state that drew him back.
Essay, By Berkley Hudson Mar 23, 2023
Southern Spaces — Emory University
Segregation's Habits and Horrors: The Photographs of O. N. Pruitt
Review of Berkley Hudson's O. N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble & Resilience in the American South
By Scott L. Matthews February 17, 2023
New York Times Sunday Book Review
‘From the Dustbin of History,’ a Photo Archive of the Jim Crow South
O.N. Pruitt’s Possum Town captures the soul — and soullessness — of a Mississippi town in the first half of the 20th century.
By Lauren Christensen March 10, 2022
Smithsonian Magazine
Chronicling the Triumphs—and Tragedies—of Life in the Deep South
A new book and traveling exhibition highlight the work of Mississippi photographer O.N. Pruitt
By Janine Latus Feb 28, 2022
Deseret Magazine
What the Picture Man Told Me
Photographs connect us to our ancestors — and to the broader story of humanity
By Berkley Hudson Jan 26, 2022
Garden & Gun Magazine
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Possum Town
The book, with nearly two hundred images that comprise the every day, the frivolous, and the horrific (Pruitt captured lynchings and executions), includes Hudson’s extensive research and interviews with Pruitt’s subjects.
By Lindsey Liles Jan 24, 2022
Curator Conversations:
Berkley Hudson
As Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Trouble and Resilience in the American South is being prepared for its debut at the Columbus Arts Council in Columbus, Mississippi next Spring, we reached out to curator Berkley Hudson to discuss how the exhibition came about.
Curatorial Sep 17, 2021
University of Missouri —
Berkley Hudson of Peace Studies Faculty Authors Book
Missouri Journalism School Emeritus Associate Professor Berkley Hudson, who has co-taught a Peace Studies course on authoritarianism and democracy for several years, has written a new book and curated a nationally traveling exhibition of photographs based on the work of Mississippi photographer O.N. Pruitt (1891-1967).
By Daive Dunkley, University of Missouri Nov 2021
Additional Coverage
Commercial Dispatch — 100 years in the making:
Exhibit of historic Columbus photos to open Thursday
Images represent 40-plus years of work by photographer O.N. Pruitt
By Nicole Layton, Jan 29, 2022
Book Talk: A conversation with Berkley Hudson
In 1987, a circle of boyhood friends from Columbus acquired 88,000 photo negatives comprising four decades of daily life in Lowndes County — images they first discovered by happenstance in the early 1970s and never forgot.
By Emily Liner, Jan 30, 2022
Mississippi Public Broadcasting —
O.N. Pruitt's Possum Town with Prof. Berkley Hudson
Historians say they're fascinated and confounded by the late Mississippian's work, which portrays life in Lowndes County in the early-to-mid twentieth century. Currently, about one hundred of Pruitt's photographs are on display at the Columbus Art Council gallery as part of an exhibit organized by University of Missouri professor Berkley Hudson.
April 7, 2022
WCBI-TV — Trouble and Resilience: New photo exhibit captures the complex history of race and culture in Columbus, Mississippi
Thursday, the Columbus Arts Council debuted its new exhibit, “Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South.”
By Stephen Pimpo Feb 5, 2022