During a year spent living amongst the locals of the Mississippi Delta, award-winning photographer Magdelena Solé was able to extract the allure and dismay of true Southern life. She has compiled her work into a new book, New Delta Rising.

Many photographers have found inspiration in the people and landscapes of the Delta, but Solé has done more than just capture images, she has explored the land and life and uncovered a true celebration of spirit.

G&G contributing writer, Rick Bragg, who pens the book's introduction, says it best: “There is a sadness here that some people can hardly bear, but it is also a place where people live, where you can get the best tamale in the whole wide world, where clean white sheets snap like pistol shots on the clothesline, propane tanks shine on the horizon like spaceships, and man with mud on his boots is not sneered at but admired, because mud means money, squeezed from the catfish ponds and farms.”

Below is a small selection from the nearly one hundred must-see photos of the people and places captured by Solé in New Delta Rising.

Dog waking up, Coahoma
 

Mark Forty Niners: Zyon, Quinton, Issac, and Geoffary Marks
 

Danny Allen and David Wayne Smith, Hunter and Cody Raymond, Crowder
 

Cotton houses along Highway 3 near Tutwiler
 

Old store, Greenwood
 

Mount Zion Church near Belen
 

Abandoned house near Crowder
 

A cloud of dust on Perry Farm Road near Hollywood
 

Ground Zero blues club, Clarksdale
 

At church, Leland
 

Bilbo Walker at Red’s Lounge, Clarksdale
 

Terrapin neck cut-off, also known as mouth of Lake Chotard, near Vicksburg
 

Julia Borders at her store, Winstonville