Bronze / 2019 / Portraiture / Culture

Blue Muse: Timothy Duffy's Southern Photographs

The tintype is rooted in more than 150 years of photographic method. In this collection of extraordinary portraits, Timothy Duffy brings new vitality to this old form, capturing powerful images of musicians who represent the roots of American music. These American blues, jazz, and folk artists are living expressions of a cultural legacy, made and remade by everyday people and passed down through generations. In the hands of the people in Duffy's portraits, centuries-old traditions find new expression in this digital millennium.

Timothy Duffy is a renowned photographer and founder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation. Timothy has been recording and photographing traditional artists in the South since the age of 16, when he became interested in ethnomusicology. After earning a BA from Friends World College and MA from the Curriculum in Folklore at the UNC, Timothy and his wife Denise founded Music Maker Relief Foundation in 1994 to assist traditional musicians in need.

Duffy’s photographs are in permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, National Museum of African American History and Culture among others.

Awards Collections:

The New Orleans Museum of Art
Northwestern University
University of Minnesota
Morris Museum of Art
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
UNC Chapel Hill, Wilson Library