A self-described “extreme romantic,” Clarence John
Laughlin was convinced that old homes acquire lives of their own. The Louisiana
native photographed historical architecture to earn a living, but his personal
work—especially his most famous photobook, Ghosts
Along the Mississippi (1948)—symbolically interprets buildings rather than
merely documenting them. Laughlin made many visits to Belle Grove, a Greek
Revival–style plantation that was one of the largest homes in the South prior
to the Civil War. This “tragic queen,” as Laughlin described it, stood largely
in ruins by 1952 when the photographer heard over the radio that it was burning
and rushed to the scene with his camera. Framed by tremendous oaks with
mournful-looking moss, this picture eulogizes the crumbled mass of the building
while also suggesting that plantation culture had rotted from within.