Maude Schuyler-Clay (born 1953) started her color portrait series in 1975 when she acquired her first Rolleiflex 2 camera. At the time, she was living and working in New York and paid frequent visits to her native Mississippi Delta, whose landscape and people continued to inspire her. Over the next 25 years, the project, which began as "The Mississippians," evolved into a homage to Julia Margaret Cameron. A defining pioneer of the art of photography, Cameron lived in Victorian England and started her first photographic experiments in 1863, following the gift of a camera. The expressive, allegorical portraits of her friends and family and her artful approach to capturing the very essence of light are a clear driving force behind Clay's nostalgic recollection of carefree moments of family life and play in the Southern state in the 1980s and 90s.