A Look at Life in the Mississippi Delta

In his new book, photojournalist Brandon Thibodeaux shows a different side of one of the South’s most treasured landscapes

Brandon Thibodeaux’s journey through the Mississippi Delta began in 2009 with twenty rolls of black and white film and a 1970s-vintage twin-lens camera. “I thought if I came back with anything I’d be happy,” Thibodeaux says. After eight years spent traversing forty square miles of small towns around Clarksdale, he came home to Dallas with thousands of images, out of which he compiled his first book, In That Land of Perfect Day, released last month.

The book details rural Delta life, focusing on faith and perseverance. Taken in by the Coffey family in Duncan and a Baptist preacher in Mound Bayou, Thibodeaux found a commonality that comes to light in his work. “In my home state of Texas, I see agricultural areas all the time. I realized it wasn’t the landscape of the Delta that makes it so moving, or the timeless, romanticized, rural image of the South,” says Thibodeaux. “It’s the people.”