MYRTLE BEACH, SC.- Faces and Stories: A Portrait of Southern Writers will be on display at the Myrtle Beach Art Museum September 5, 2009, through January 3, 2010.

Initially commissioned to photograph the founding members of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, internationally acclaimed photographer Curt Richter expanded the project over a seven-year period to photograph over 200 writers associated with the South. Sixty of these photographs appear in Faces and Stores: A Portrait of Southern Writers, an exhibition of black and white portraits paying tribute to the strong literary heritage of the American South.

Richter’s work has been highly acclaimed by visual art collectors as well as the authors themselves. According to author Robert Coles, “Richter evokes the inevitable mystery of talent, if not genius.” Ann Beattie, one of the Southern authors featured in Faces and Stories, comments, “[Richter] waits for the expressive moment that has little or nothing to do with the face people usually present to the world.” Coles and Beattie agree that the power of Richter’s Faces and Stories inspires the audience to see aspects of themselves in the photograph while acknowledging the subtle strength of each author’s portrait.

Curt Richter’s photography has been exhibited internationally and appears in museum collections worldwide. He is winner of the John Kobal Portrait Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright Grant. His images have been published in Conde Nast Traveler, Esquire, Fortune, House and Garden, Mirabella, The New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone. Born in New York, Richter now live is Finland.

Art Museum Executive Director Pat Goodwin is delighted this exhibit will be at the Museum. “For all of us who love the visual arts and the written word – with some regional tenure – this is the perfect exhibit. Curt Richter’s photographs are so engaging – dramatic yet very personal and straightforward. They make you want to linger and to learn more about the subject and his or her works.”