Hillbilly Wisdom and "Monday's Girl"

Many years ago I had the pleasure of working with Joe Clark, HBSS (for Hill Billy Snap Shooter).  He was, and is, best known for his gripping portraits from the Cumberland Gap and later, the Jack Daniels whiskey ads.  He had been hired by the K mart Corporation to judge our worldwide photo contest.  As editor of the corporate newspaper, I had collected thousands of entries and would be publishing the winners in an upcoming issue.  After hours of categorizing and evaluating all levels of photography, Joe picked the winners.  One of the big winners was a hazy, out-of-focus photo of a girl under an umbrella in the rain.  I was shocked, and anticipated angry letters to the editor, so I asked how he picked them.
His answer was simple: "I know it is a winner when I can't tear my eyes away from it."
I have never forgotten that moment, and his words.  Sophisticated art critics may have fancier words, or they may miss the boat entirely through overanalysis.  In any case, I don't remember if anyone complained about his choices, and I don't remember any of the other photos.  "Monday's Girl" reminds me of Joe because I can't seem to tear my eyes away from it.  The model was actually much prettier.  I loved her thick hair and eyebrows, and a graceful posture and the set of her jaw.  Everything about it suggests to me the Helga series of Andrew Wyeth  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Helga_Pictures).  The two women would be diminished by conventional prettiness.  Both convey strength with utter femininity.  Joe Clark's photos of Depression-era hills women share that look, too.  Perhaps that is another reason why I am thinking of him after all these years.  I hope I have been a good student of his hillbilly wisdom.  Also, I'm pretty sure he gave me a little book of his outhouse pictures that day.  Now where is it?
Add-ons:  About a dozen years later, I was able to work with Joe's son on a photo project for a different corporation.  Glad to see their work has a good home...http://news.unt.edu/news-releases/nationally-significant-joe-and-junebug-clark-photography-collection-gifted-unt.  This has a cute biography of Joe...http://www.angelfire.com/ky2/cumberlandgapbc/mhpage/joeclark.html  and his photos remind me of the movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" with George Clooney (who was born in Kentucky)...http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190590/