Blue Muse

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. Likewise, Duffy's photographic techniques fuse old forms and the original collodion wet plates with modern lighting. In this collaboration between photographer and artist, music and image meet around a history of struggle, adaptability, and creativity. It is this ethos that Duffy captures in his tintypes.

Some of the musicians in Duffy's photographs have found fame, but most have not. While the world finds inspiration in the grassroots creativity of these musicians, barriers of class, race, and place often keep them underacknowledged and obscured. But in these photographs, Duffy demands they be seen.

"The artists found in these images represent the roots of American music. Most will be strangers. Some have found fame. All are artists of American folk traditions, the living expressions of who we are, made and remade by everyday people and passed down through generations. While the world finds inspiration in the well of grassroots creativity maintained by traditional musicians, barriers of class, race, and place often keep the artists themselves under-acknowledged and obscured"--
Timothy Duffy's photography is held in the permanent collections of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Morris Museum of Art, among other museums and institutions. With his wife, Denise, he is cofounder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
Russell Lord is the Freeman Family Curator of Photographs at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). His deepest area of expertise is the origins of photography, but Lord has written and lectured widely on almost every moment in the history of photography. His recent publications include: Looking Again: Photography at the New Orleans Museum of Art (2018), and Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument (2013). Much of his research focuses on the relationships between photography and other visual media
William Ferris is Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ferris is coeditor of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and author of several other books, including the informal trilogy The South in Color: A Visual Journal, The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists, and Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues.
A stunning collection of tintypes.--No Depression