travel

I worked for photographer Birney Imes for one year in Columbus, Mississippi. I was a reporter for his family newspaper. I got a chance to live in the area where Whispering Pines is located and get a feel for Imes's hometown, which is the basis for nearly all of his photographs.

I've driven by the old Whispering Pines building many times, but you wouldn't look twice at the broken down place. What makes Imes a great photographer is that he stops, gets out, and meets the people behind the place. Since he's a hometown boy, the people in the area warm to him and don't mind the intrusion of his camera.

Imes's photos of the haunting owner of Whispering Pines and his surroundings are vintage South -- what you never see from the road. He uses bright lighting in full-bled color to depict a place that now is crubbling in grey dust.

This book comes in a close second to Imes's Juke Joint, a collection of photographs of various southern juke joints in Mississippi. But if you want a mystical vision -- a southern mirage, try Whispering Pines.