|
 PHOTOGRAPHER MIKE KERR will be guest speaker of the Memphis Camera Club (MCC) on June 15, 2017. A "journalism junkie" with years of experience as a reporter, copy editor and website editor at the Commercial Appeal, Kerr currently publishes his photographs on his website about mid-south life and Memphis area music: www.f8inMemphis.com. He also maintains a huge presence on Instagram where he has attracted 7,300 followers.
Kerr is "a big fan of the music of this region," and his "Memphis Music" gallery on f8inMemphis contains dozens of action photos of musical artists with links to Memphis, including Jerry Lee Lewis, the iconic Bar-Kays, and John Fogerty, an alumnus of the Credence Clearwater Revival. Kerr's images convey the mood of the moment, whether it's an exuberant crowd stomping and screaming at the Beale Street Music Festival or singer-songwriter Harlan T. Bobo awash in tiny lights and murmuring into the microphone before a sell-out crowd at Memphis' Otherlands Coffee Bar.
Kerr also explores Memphis and the Mid-South, "looking for elements of the past that have somehow survived to collide with the present." Those elements include a broken and abandoned church in Nitta Yuma, MS with a banner on the wall that states, "This vision shall come to pass." There are also photographs of a candlelight vigil at Graceland and the maroon and gold entryway to Tootsies Orchid Lounge in Nashville, a storied hangout for many legendary stars of country music.
"Past and present meet in unexpected ways," Kerr says. One of his goals is "to capture those connections before they're lost for good."
|