Land of Deepest Shade

In 70 sharp-focus, black-and-white duotones, McWilliams ( Can You See Me? ) portrays ravaged landscapes, smoke-spewing factories and deserted towns and houses of the American South. Taken between 1973 and 1987, these haunting, melancholy photos portray a muddy river flowing through Washington County, Ga., the topsoil stripped from its bare banks; a burned-out tractor-trailer sitting on the Route 70 roadside of Tennessee; a tree in Alabama covered with white waste from a cotton gin. Rosengarten's ( Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter ) appreciative introduction describes the environmental backgrounds of the images and recalls a photo trek taken with McWilliams through the Big Wambaw wilderness area in South Carolina. (Dec.)