It was a hot summer day, and the scene was like many one would find in a rural Mississippi town.
Seven-year-old Anita Bell and her uncle John Jackson were spending the afternoon on the wooden front porch of their family home. Anita, a typical tomboy, was playing in the yard despite her frustrations with her mother making her wear a dress that day. And “Uncle Possum” sat against a porch rail, with his shirt off and wearing a worn pair of blue jeans.
And then an unknown man approached them from across the street of their Broadway home. Carrying a camera, he captured a moment of Anita standing by her uncle. Anita appeared agitated that she was wearing a dress. And her uncle just stared at the floor of the porch, with his arm draped over Anita.
A simple scene…not unusual for these parts.
But that one moment can now be seen in galleries across the United States and Europe. It is auctioned for thousands of dollars. It is known as “Father and Daughter.”
And Anita, now a grown woman, only recently discovered that she and her uncle’s photograph has gained attention across the world. Their image embodied Southern culture, a Yazoo scene.
“My mother remembered the man years ago, taking pictures,” Anita said. “We just thought it was a man taking pictures. We never thought much about it again.”
“That man” was Nicholas Nixon, a photographer who was known for his work in portraiture and documentary photography. He has photographed porch life in the rural south, schools in and around Boston, cityscapes and sick and dying people for decades.
Anita’s cousin Cleotha Bell, an art designer, was researching when he uncovered the photograph of Anita and her Uncle Possum. Sending an email with the photograph attached, Anita soon discovered her face and a brief moment captured in time had appeared at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and even inside a Russian gallery.
“I was in shock,” she said. “For us, it was just somebody taking a picture. It really didn’t look like art to me. But then I started researching, and I found it in galleries in Russia and Europe.”
The photograph sold for close to $10,000 at an art auction. It was published in Nixon’s Pictures of People.
“I look sad in the picture,” Anita admits. “I used to hate wearing dresses because I was a tomboy. And I remember I had to wear one that day. And my uncle was just sitting there. He and I were very close. But I really can’t remember what we were doing that day.”
Uncle Possum is now blind, but he was able to see the photograph before he lost his vision. He would have never thought that a brief moment on Thelma Jackson’s front porch would fascinate the art world.
“I am still in shock,” Anita said. “It was just any other day when he took our picture. And look where it went.”
