N.C. photographer captures award

Jeff Whetstone's Southern scenes claim 2008 Factor Prize

It's the feral cats that intrigue photographer Jeff Whetstone.

That, and the alligator he once caught with his bare hands in a Southern swamp.

Jeff Whetstone

North Carolina photographer Jeff Whetstone won the 2008 Factor Prize for Southern Art, which carries a $10,000 prize. The photo "Self-Portrait with Catfish" was taken by Whetstone using an old-fashioned bulb controlled by foot release.

It was the Tennessee native's oddly familiar, yet eerily foreign interpretation of Southernscapes that won him the 2008 Factor Prize for Southern Art, announced Monday at the Gibbes Museum of Art's annual meeting.

The prize carries a $10,000 award donated by Charleston residents Mallory and Elizabeth Factor through the auspices of the Gibbes.

A University of North Carolina professor of photography, Whetstone, 40, triumphed over 250 applicants, who were whittled down to eight finalists by a panel that included the Factors and former Gibbes' Executive Director Todd Smith. The final choice was Whetstone's "New Wilderness," a collection of 10 photographs.

Carrying out the wishes of the Factors, who moved from New York to Charleston in 2006, the prize honors a body of work conveying Southern themes by those who are from or who live in one of the 10 Southern states.

"Through the vision and generosity of the Factors, the Gibbes will have a consistent voice in the Southern contemporary art scene," said Angela Mack, newly appointed executive director of the Gibbes. An exhibition of Whetstone's work will be at the museum during 2009.

Smith said, "Jeff's work was chosen for his engagement with the Southern experience in both the human and natural realms."

The Factors said they plan to give the prize each year. The other finalists were Jose Alvarez, Radcliffe Bailey, William Christenberry, Henri Schindler, Philip Simmons and Stacy-Lynn Waddell.

In a telephone conversation from his Chapel Hill office, where he is a member of the art department, Whetstone said, "It's amazing that this award is honoring Southern art, and I'm really so happy to have my work selected."

He said he will use part of the money to help mount an exhibit of his work to open in Sept. 12 at the Julie Saul Gallery in New York. The remainder will go toward travel involved in taking photos of rural and urban Southern scenes to be possibly published in book form.

"I love animals," Whetstone said. "My interest in feral cats is that they come from ancestors, who were once wild and then domesticated; the feral ones reverse the process. My self-portrait of me holding a catfish was taken by using an old-fashioned air bulb, which I released with my foot. It shows how the man and the fish are not that different: both are shiny and wet."

He added, "Animal instincts are alive in all of us, whether you wear a suit to go to work, or go hunting," he said. "Remember no matter how urban a place may be, the wilderness is only a step away, waiting to take over."

A 1990 graduate of Duke University where he majored in zoology, Whetstone received his master's degree in photography from Yale University in 2001, where he won the Sakier prize for photography.

Reach Dottie Ashley at 937-5704 or dashley@postand courier.com.