And that day, for better or worse, supplies the images that spring to mind for people all around the world who hear the name of Siegel’s hometown.

But the South, as our readers know well, is a complex place — as are the communities within it. And for his entire career, Siegel has photographed his hometown and the geography it anchors — Alabama’s “black belt,” named such not for its large African-American population, as many people mistakenly believe, but for the richness of its soil.

The Georgia Museum of Art has just published a retrospective of Siegel’s work called “Black Belt Color.” The book is an indelible reminder that the greatest photography of the South has usually come from native Southerners, who see our region as it is, and not through the lens of stereotypes.

It is also a document of the region’s complexity. As Siegel himself says, “This isn’t a definitive view of the ‘black belt’ region. This is a very, very tight focus — images of what I respond to based on how I grew up. Every picture tells a story . . . but it never tells the whole story.” — Chuck Reece