The Wealth of Nothing features the photographs, poetry, and portraits created by the one-armed itinerant photographer, William Van Auken Greene, during his travels around the town of Aynor and surrounding Horry County
Photographing between the 1930s and 40s, Greene's collected photographs provide a glimpse into small-town American life. Greene hitched rides and walked around the back roads of Horry County, snapping portraits of any resident who would pay a quarter, and provided many of the residents the only photographs of their loved ones, prized possessions, and favorite gathering places. Through his lens, families paused from harvesting tobacco, communities came together to raise a barn, and parents clutched their sons in uniform.
This handcrafted project combines interviews, newspaper and census clippings, and Greene’s poetry with high-quality photographic restorations to create a portrait of the small town people and values that Greene carefully documented. Students from history, photography, and design worked alongside the Horry County Museum, who houses the collection of Greene’s negatives and photos.
The publication is the second installment of the The Athenaeum Press’ chapbook series, the result of close collaboration between the project initiator (Eldred “Wink” Prince, Jr.) and a student production team (history team Nick Barton, Grace Cox, Nick McKinney; photographers Amber Eckersley and Jason Wysong; design lead Collin Oliva).
