The blues may first bring to mind music and smoky clubs, but The Georgia Museum of Art (GMOA) offers a glimpse at what gave those musicians the blues.

Topics of photographs in the exhibit “Visualizing the Blues: Images of the American South 1862-1999″ range from the Civil War to the Great Depression.

Other topics in the broad spectrum of the blues include civil rights, spirituality and the occult.

“All of the images in this exhibit illustrate the world that gave birth to the blues, a tradition of music that reveals the distinct cultural heritage of the South,” said Michele Power, media relations coordinator for GMOA.

The exhibit will include many photographs of the South in an era that spans over 130 years, she said.

“‘Visualizing the Blues’ is an explosive celebration of the life and culture of the American South and the Delta region,” Power said.

She said one of the most prominent photographers in the exhibit is William Eggleston.

Eggleston, who currently lives in Memphis, is considered by many people to be the best-known living American photographer.

He, unlike many contemporary artists, works primarily in color photographs.

According to the Web site for the light shaping and photography company, Profoto, (www.profoto.com), Eggleston often is referred to as the “Father of Color Photography,” although the site states that his work is debated by reputable art critics to be “perfect” to some and “perfectly boring” to others.

Eudora Welty, the author of “Death of a Traveling Salesman”E and “The Robber Bridegroom” has contributed photographs of her Mississippi home from the 1930s and 1940s to the exhibit.

According to the University of Mississippi Web site (www.olemiss.com), “While Welty obviously (felt) her primary medium to be language, she did not hold photography in abeyance, but continued to use a camera until 1950.”

The Web site said her career as a photographer never accelerated as much as her career as a writer but that two of her exhibitions were on display in New York City, and many of her pieces were published.

Clarence John Laughlin, another photographer on display who captured the American South during the Great Depression, photographed mostly his home of Louisiana.

According to the Profoto Web site, Laughlin was a self-taught photographer who made his own enlarging equipment.

It stated, “(He) spent most of his life photographing the area, creating works steeped in the atmosphere of a decaying Southern civilization.”

“Visualizing the Blues” will continue to be on display at GMOA through March 23.