March 17 - April 14, 2000

"Beale Street: Today & Yesterday" is a collection of photographs that has been in progress for more than 30 years. It is meant to show that streets, in common with their inhabitants, have character.

Just as it is impossible to step in the same river twice, it is impossible to walk down the same Beale Street twice. Beale Street, like every busy thoroughfare in any major city, is dynamic rather than static, changing not only year to year and season to season but from day to day. The photographs in this collection aim to show Beale Street through the years and portray the many aspects of its character as revealed at various hours of the day and night.

» about the artist
George Hardin has exhibited his photographs at LeMoyne-Owen College, The University of Memphis, Middle Tennessee State University, and the Memphis College of Art. Examples are included in the permanent collections of MTSU and the Smithsonian Institution. His work has been published in the books Blacks in Journalism and Homespun Images, as well as in Newsweek, Jet, and the Chicago Daily Defender. Mr. Hardin is a copy editor at The Commercial Appeal and former editor of the Tri-State Defender.