All the Blues Gone
By Rex Miller

The delta of the Mississippi river is the origin of traditional blues : harmonicas, guitar and voices that cry of sorrow and tribulation. Yet as the river flows relentlessly south, the blues and its musicians have moved north and beyond, creating such tributaries as Chicago Blues, Rock and Roll, Jazz and Rap. All the Blues Gone return to the source, giving the world a treasured musical legacy from the soul of African-American culture.

In the tradition of the great folklorist Alan Lomax, photographer Rex Miller has worked years in Mississippi, building an intimate picture of Delta Musicians, their lives shaped by generations of farm work, from slavery to through sharecropping through the inner-city problems that have now come to rural Mississippi.

All the Blues Gone is not a catalogue of musical history. It is a glimpse into the culture and traditions that created this music, as seen through the lives of some of its practitioners Miller’s dramatic photographs honor the vitality of DELTA life…the cotton fields where blues began as hollers and chants; the porches where blues deepened in the cool of evenings; he juke joints where blues wail until morning; the infamous Parchman Penitentiary where blues live in fear and loneliness.

Here are the men and women who have local fame and national obscurity: John Hurt,Jr., son of Mississippi John Hurt: Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes, James “Son” Thomas and Ms.Z.L.Hill, Delta legends who have recently passed away. All the Blues Gone is part of a multimedia exhibition that has toured galleries, museums, universities, festivals and performance spaces nationally and overseas. The exhibition is comprised of:
photographic murals (framed in wood from sharecropper’s shack)
a D soundtrack of music and storytelling
an installation of projected images w/soundtrackv
educational programming


All the Blues Gone
Photographed, written and produced by Rex Miller

Book Editor Rebecca Busselle

Produced by REXPIX MEDIA

Rex Miller was born and raised in New York City, where he started commuting to school from Astoria, Queens to Manhattan on the subway at age 8, which he's sure honed his love of observing human nature, not to mention danger and adventure.

A documentary and editorial photographer for the past 25 years, his clients have included ABC News, American Express, Atlantic Records, Calvin Klein, CBS, Forbes, John Kennedy, Jr., McDonald's, Musician, Newsweek, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Nickelodeon, the Robin Hood Foundation, Rolling Stone, Spin, Sony Music, and Time.

In 1997 Miller completed "All The Blues Gone", a hardcover book/CD package documenting Mississippi blues culture. "All The Blues Gone" has been widely exhibited in the U.S. and overseas.

In 2004, Miller completed directing and producing the Documentary Short film (30 mins), I'M WALKIN': A Journey Through Parchman. The film chronicles the 10-year incarceration of Mitchell Pendelton, a Chicago-born blues musician, at Mississippi's infamous Parchman Penitentiary, a former plantation for runaway slaves. 

His documentary feature film, "SOMAY KU: A Uganda Tennis Story", premiered on The Tennis Channel in November 2008. It was awarded "Best Documentary" at the Malibu Film Festival (2008) 

In addition to corporate and advertising projects, Miller is currently shooting the feature documentary PRIVATE VIOLENCE;  Producing/Directing a feature documentary on the life of Tennis Legend Althea Gibson, and is currently in pre-production for two projects for The Tennis Channel.

He currently lives and works in Durham, North Carolina, and recently celebrated the second birthday of his daughter Sadie.

www.rexpix.net
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