![A- AmazingGrace Blessing of the Fleet [105 -1opt]](http://talesfromthelaboratory.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c62a953ef01676692ab2e970b-450wi "A- AmazingGrace Blessing of the Fleet [105 -1opt]")
Description of the photograph above by the photographer, C. Michael McCall: "Amazing Grace", the first boat in the fleet parade, is the largest shrimp boat operating on the Georgia coast today. It’s really, really big. It almost got stuck in the mud when it was turning around after its blessing, and I thought for a few moments “Amazing Grace” was going to hit the pier as it maneuvered around.
All images are posted with permission of the photographer, C. Michael McCall.
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The first time I came across a photograph by Mike McCall was when I was researching the Midway Congregational Church and Cemetery (which is at the junction of U.S. 17 and GA 38) - and I found his wonderful interior images of the church. I contacted Mike, and he generously gave me permission to post them on this site. I loved the images - you could almost feel the heat of a summer Sunday morning – seeing his images of the interior of this church really made the place come alive for me.
Mike's work has a strong sense of place - and I think his images speak volumes about the character, beauty, and depth of the coastal Georgia countryside and its people. This is my second 'Q&A' on US 17 Coastal Highway, and I'm delighted that Mike would share a bit of himself here with us, as well as a few of his images from Darien's Blessing of the Fleet. Mike's images pull you in, and make you want to stay awhile.
You can see more of his work at Lightmotif, Flickr, and on Facebook.
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![A-Capt Gabby Blessing of the Fleet 44th Darien [346 -1opt]](http://talesfromthelaboratory.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c62a953ef0163059ed65c970d-450wi "A-Capt Gabby Blessing of the Fleet 44th Darien [346 -1opt]")
Mike McCall: "Capt Gabby" isn't a shrimp boat, but it's image adorns the official t-shirt of the 44th Blessing of the Fleet Festival. I think "Capt Gabby" is a charter boat.
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US 17: So – I get the sense that you’ve been taking photographs for a long time. Do you remember the first photograph you took where you realized that a photograph could tell a story - the first photograph that ‘hooked’ you?
Mike McCall: I don’t recall a particular photograph “hooking” me, although I was enthralled early by the work of Alfred Stieglitz and Eudora Welty, among others. I spent a lot of time looking at pictures in books and magazines as a kid. I guess I really got into photography when I borrowed my cousin’s SLR for a trip to Washington, D.C. I enjoyed taking pictures so much with a camera that gave me some control over light that I kept the camera for months past the Washington trip. She finally had to ask me to return the camera. After that, I bought a Canon A-1 and a couple of lenses.
US 17: I read somewhere that your favorite thing to photograph was people. What is it about photographing people that intrigues you?
Mike McCall: Characters in a story give glimpses both of the universal and of the particular in ourselves, or they might just occupy space in the scene. A person in a photograph is like that, I think. With a human presence, a scene can take on meaning that’s more existential--or, at least, anthropological--than merely aesthetic. Consciousness of the camera and the amount and kind of self-consciousness that results affects not only how a person is photographed, but also what the person brings to the scene. I’ve often used a zoom lense to capture people without their knowing in order to avoid that self-consciousness. When I’m shooting the St. Patrick’s Day Rugby Tournament in Savannah, I use the zoom to get as many close face shots as I can during a match. The faces of those athletes in the throes of the game, in victory or defeat, can be richly intense. But I much prefer shooting people when they know I’m making pictures but don’t care.
I’ve always been a people watcher. What I’m really doing is watching them while they are preoccupied and imagining what they’re thinking, what their lives are like, what relationship they have with those they are with...that kind of thing. Some of the most fascinating photos to me are the ones of people caught in an unguarded moment. Despite all that, I often feel uneasy taking candid shots and am trying to get the hang of posing people to look as if they don’t know a camera is pointed at them. At the same time, I want to be able to capture some aspect of personality in a posed shot with the person looking right at the camera. I have a lot of work to do in that respect.
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![A-Miss Blessing of the Fleet 44th Darien [563 -1opt]](http://talesfromthelaboratory.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c62a953ef0168eb94797a970c-450wi "A-Miss Blessing of the Fleet 44th Darien [563 -1opt]")
Mike McCall: Miss Blessing of the Fleet, Kassandra Derf, on the deck of the "Lady Susie II."
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US 17: While you like photographing people, you’ve also said that your photographs of landscapes were your best work. I have a single favorite photograph of yours, one that I like for reasons I can’t fully understand – it’s of a couple of guys, with their pick-up truck, at the edge of a river. Just like the interior images of the church, this image pulls me into that day, into that moment in time. I also love the gorgeous images of cypresses at the George L. Smith State Park – southern cypress swamps are stunningly beautiful places. Your images have such a strong sense of place. What is it about the southern landscape that you find so compelling?
Mike McCall: I’ve lived all my life where Georgia’s coastal plain meets the coast, where the pine forest meets the marsh, on the edge of a river swamp. Not even a mile from my house, the swamp begins and runs for about 10 miles to the Altamaha River. Many of the people I know here could be characters in Flannery O’Connor’s or Erskine Caldwell’s stories, with little or any invention on the part of the author. It’s the land that makes living here worthwhile. There’s still a lot of wild country down here, especially along the rivers. We’re blessed to dwell near not only the Altamaha, but also the Satilla, Little Satilla, Alabaha, Ohoopee, Canoochee, Ogeechee...along their sloughs and creeks and lakes and ponds. Less than 30 minutes from my house are the salt-water rivers and sounds and marshes along the coast between the mainland and the barrier islands. About an hour’s drive away are the barrier island beaches. What’s not to love about this varied landscape? I try to capture what I love about this place and how it lifts my spirit. The cypress images you mentioned are good examples, as is the one of the guys loading the boat at the landing...for despite how the people here most times are, this place is where the soul is nourished. But it’s not just the beauty of the landscape that I want to capture. I often come across trash, piled or scattered, left irresponsibly by some of those same people who wouldn’t live anywhere else. Agricultural waste, paper mills, and power plants pollute the waters and poison the land and the people just as irresponsibly. I want my photographs to show people what they are about to lose...and to tell them all to clean up their damned messes.
US 17: On your Flickr page you include a few favorite quotations. I especially liked the one below, because I think that even the smallest moment can be significant – is significant.
"The simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression. In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a leitmotif." — Henri Cartier-Bresson
You were an English teacher, right? Before you started working on your photography on more of a full-time basis?
Mike McCall: I like how a story or poem is made, all the little things an author does with language to communicate his or her message. My favorite authors pull me into the story, show me their characters and let me hear them speak and act. After a couple of false starts (one, being in the wrong place and the second, desperately attempting to save a flailing marriage) I was thrown into teaching a survey of American literature for half a term and grammar the other half. I had to learn American literature and teach the whole book in half a term since I’d read only British lit, except for two sleep-inducing American lit surveys, in college. I also had to learn how to teach. Fortunately, my teaching colleagues at Bradwell Institute were exceptional teachers and generous with me. I think I became a pretty good teacher. My deepest love, though, isn’t literature, but is and has always been history. Why I didn’t major in history, I don’t know. All I can say is that I had more good and inspring literature teachers than history teachers. In my literature classes, I always talked about the historical and social environments within which the authors worked. Literature is like a photograph of a time and place and the people who live there. Some aspects are particular to that moment, and some are universal and apparently never change. So for me to leave teaching somewhat early to pursue photography full time isn’t such a big jump. With literature, I have the words without picture or sound; with photography, I have only the still picture.
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![A- Laying the wreath Blessing of the Fleet 44th Darien [526 -1opt]](http://talesfromthelaboratory.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c62a953ef0163059ee9bf970d-450wi "A- Laying the wreath Blessing of the Fleet 44th Darien [526 -1opt]")
Mike McCall: Traditionally a wreath honoring fishermen and shrimpers who have perished is laid from the last vessel in the parade. In this photo, Grand Marshall Curtis Carter is laying the wreath from the stern of "Sundown".
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US 17: You’ve mentioned that you are working on a series of photographs focused on the Altamaha River. Highway 17, near the town of Darien, runs right through the complex of marshes that comprise the mouth of the Altamaha. Can you share with us a bit more about this project – and what it means to you?
Mike McCall: The Altamaha Project is a collaboration with Brian Brown of Vanishing South Georgia, whom you interviewed previously. We are documenting the Altamaha River area from Lumber City to Darien, from confluence to delta...as much of the river environment and culture as we can find. We want to show what a great blessing we have here in this great river and why we need to respect it, save it, and protect it.
(You can see a few additional images taken by Mike of the Darien River posted here and here).
US 17: I have to ask you at least one question about Highway 17. In Georgia, what is your favorite stretch of Highway 17, and why?
Mike McCall: My favorite stretch of Highway 17 is between Midway and Eulonia, where one can see tidal streams and marsh out to the Atlantic. Sometimes people can be seen crabbing off short wooden piers. To drive along that stretch with the windows down on a warm day and catch the aroma of the marsh...heaven!
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![A-Sea Angel Blessing of the Fleet 44th Darien [287 -1opt]](http://talesfromthelaboratory.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c62a953ef0168eb948333970c-450wi "A-Sea Angel Blessing of the Fleet 44th Darien [287 -1opt]")
Mike McCall: "Sea Angel" was the only boat that was decorated for the event, a fact lamented by some locals standing next to me on the bridge.
Thank you Mike, for sharing your thoughts - and your photographs of Darien's Blessing of the Fleet - with US 17. It's been a pleasure.
