Photographer Al Clayton (1934-2014) was born in Etowah TN, Clayton spent his school years in Copperhill TN where his mother was a teacher and his father worked for the railroad. His ambition was to become a doctor, to accomplish this he joined the Navy in 1952 to use the educational assistance it offered. He became a Hospital Corpsman and was assigned to the Marines. In 1956 he was handed a camera in the operating room at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center and his photographic career began. He extended his military tour to attend the U. S. Navy Medical Photography School and served the rest of his enlistment as a medical photographer.

After leaving the Navy he attended the Art Center School of Los Angeles. He moved to Atlanta in 1961 working with established studios until the next year when he and two partners formed Miller, Clayton & Matthews. In 1963 he moved to Nashville to work with the Illustration Design Group before opening his own studio there. In the mid 1960s, he traveled through the Mississippi Delta, eastern Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama, documenting poor people’s lives. In July 1967, his photographs were presented at a hearing on Capitol Hill, where they helped spur senators to call for increased funding for anti-poverty programs. These images were presented in, Still Hungry In America (1969), text by Robert Coles and photographs by Al Clayton. In 1971, Clayton moved his freelance photography studio from Nashville to Atlanta, GA, for 25 years he ran a successful business. In 1996 he closed his commercial studio and moved to Jasper, GA where he resided until his death in 2014. During his career Clayton’s photography focused heavily on subjects related to the people, culture, and music of the American South. Many of Clayton’s photographs have appeared in publications including Look Magazine, Life, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, New York Times, and Esquire.

Clayton published over a dozen books, and made a film of Pentecostal snake handlers, “In Jesus’ Name”. He was drawn to music and photographed musicians including over 100 album covers. He received numerous awards, among them the Overseas Press Club Award for Best Coverage of Foreign Wars honoring his depiction of the Biafran War in 1969. His commercial work garnered many Clios and Addys from New York, Atlanta and Nashville Art Directors Clubs.

The work of Al Clayton is featured in this exhibition.

(Select the image to view the exhibition page)

Music To My Eyes

Collector’s Eye

Still Hungry In America, (on Amazon)
Published: March 1, 2018 (originally published 1968)
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN 978-0820353241

Covenant: Faces, Voices, Places
Published 1989
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers, LTD
ISBN 978-0934601832

Al Clayton Featured in AJC

Featured Artist: Al Clayton
AJC article & Republished Book

Lumière is proud to present the work of Al Clayton. Clayton had a long and varied career in photography and was active in Atlanta, Nashville and throughout the Southeast. His work featured in the highly regarded book, Still Hungry In America, was republished (3/1/18) by the University of Georgia Press in conjunction with the Southern Foodways Alliance.

Originally published in 1969, the documentary evidence of poverty and malnutrition in the American South showcased in Still Hungry in America still resonates today. The work was created to complement a July 1967 U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower, and Poverty hearings on hunger in America.The work documents conditions in Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta and was instrumental in re-vamping the Food Stamp program in the late 1960’s.

This republished book was also the focal point of an Atlanta Journal & Constitution article published Sunday March 11, 2018. Select this link to read that story on the AJC website. (subscription required)

Additional images from this body of work, his intimate Nashville portraits, and work from Atlanta in the 80’s and 90’s can be found on his Lumière artist page.