CONFEDERATE MOONS by Gregory Halpern, TBW Books

8.75 × 11 in
Clothbound hardcover with tip-in
TBW Books, 2018
First edition of 1000

Signed by the artist

During a summer marked by a total eclipse of the sun, known colloquially as “The Great American Eclipse,” Gregory Halpern chose North and South Carolina as the stage in which to capture this rare and fleeting event, one which had not been visible across the entire contiguous United States since June 8, 1918.

Halpern was particularly drawn to how the drama of that celestial coincidence intersected with the moments of life that directly preceded and followed it that year. Although the idea for the book was initially inspired by this celestial phenomenon, the work ultimately became more of a meditation on the American South, on the state of the nation at this moment, and on that which separates and conversely brings us together. “I was fascinated,” Halpern says, “by the idea that the entire nation was staring at the sun, reveling in the apocalyptic thrill of watching the moon temporarily extinguish our life-source, all together.”