Mississippi Jews: A Photographic Essay
Adam Shemper returns to Mississippi to photograph his Southern landslayt.
"The story of Jews in the South," writes Eli Evans in his classic study, The Provincials, "is the story of fathers who built businesses to give their sons who didn't want them." Photographer Adam Shemper is one of those sons. After leaving his native Mississippi to go to college in New England, Shemper returned to document the heritage he left behind: both his father's scrap metal business in Hattiesburg and the quiet life of Southern Jews.
Below, a slideshow of images from Shemper's photographic essay, the cover story of Pakn Treger #27, Winter 1998. Further below, the article as it was printed in Pakn Treger.