Lee Harper’s Dioramas of Mississippi Juke Joint Junior’s Place Turn Back the Hands of Fate
Photographer Bill Steber was one of only a few lensmen who had permission from northern Mississippi blues artist David “Junior” Kimbrough to shoot film at his legendary juke joint in Chulahoma. Over nearly two dozen nights from 1993 until 1999, Steber captured the spontaneous energy and candid moments Kimbrough’s music inspired at the slapdash structure informally known as Junior’s Place.
“It was really one of the most important physical spaces in the history of Mississippi music, and maybe music anywhere,” says Steber, who has captured Mississippi blues culture for three decades. “The music, of course, is the primary thing, but every square inch of that place was a kind of joyous, over-the-top folk-art masterpiece.”