Tami Lynn
On Friday, November 6th, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music is
hosting an opening reception for “Still Life in Soul,” an exhibition of
photographs of soul-music performers by Jacob Blickenstaff.
Blickenstaff, who’s based in New York and began the project four
years ago, was taking portraits and performance shots — artists
of soul’s ’60s and ’70s hey day, including Tami Lynn, Bettye LaVette,
Otis Clay, and Eddie Floyd — at events such as the Ponderosa
Stomp. Initially, Blickenstaff saw it as documenting music history but
realized that wasn’t quite accurate when it came to these performers.
“They’re still in the here and now,” he says. “They like to perform.
They’re great at performing.”
Blickenstaff says that the subtext to the show is about the record
labels, such as the revived Stax, and the festivals, including the
Ponderosa Stomp and the Brooklyn Soul Festival, which continue to
support these artists. “They’re making it possible,” he says. “They’re
providing a bridge between generations, creating a small but growing
environment for people to appreciate this music.”
