Comments on: Art and Representation

By: Photoble Notables | Remember that time we went to Kentucky?

Photoble Notables | Remember that time we went to Kentucky? — Sat, 19 May 2012 21:16:43 +0000

[...] exploits the poverty and disempowerment in Appalachia and reproduces negative stereotypes,” writes Dr. Lisa Wade, a professor of sociology at Occidental College. There’s contention about how his photos are [...]

By: Whetstone

Whetstone — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:54:00 +0000

You can’t take issue with images being staged. All images are staged. Very few moments in documentary film, television, or photography are “real.” Look at and documentary film about Appalachia or anywhere else. Almost every shot is staged: people sitting on the couch talking to the camera, walking around the property, driving over to see their family member, etc. Of course it is staged that is how media works. Their was a moment in documentary life — before everyone was making their own films — where the camera could capture moments of life, but again, people know they are being filmed and moments are staged.

By: Haz

Haz — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:12:00 +0000

I’m a Bay Stater who recently moved to Kentucky for a job, and was fortunate to fall in love with a wonderful woman originally from the Hazard area of Kentucky. Her family lives in obvious poverty, but definitely is not in need of love, laughter, and happiness. Her Thanksgivings and holidays are just as fulfilling as my own upper class Cape Cod home on the ocean celebrations. No doubt, they’re hard and amazing people, but in my opinion to see the resilienant love and joy they experience would be a nice change from the cliche.

Also, really… the whole they couldn’t afford to butcher/own a
pig? Hazard has a Walmart that sells ham and all sorts of deli meat. Why would they need to afford a pig? Guess an Oscar Meyer sandwich doesn’t sell as well.

By: ArtSong

ArtSong — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:47:00 +0000

Diane Arbus photographed middle class people in their living rooms and it was equally as haunting as Mr Adams photos. Perhaps they are haunting for the same reasons, but in a different environment. They are certainly worth taking a look at.

“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.” Diane Arbus

By: Gaia Dreamer

Gaia Dreamer — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Above and beyond all the hoopla and intellectual ramblings, the fact is many people in the U.S. have no idea how much diversity exists in our culture. Television here is sanitized and people’s lives on television, except reality TV, as well as their images (faces, clothes, belongings, environments, and etc.) are homogenized to such an absurd extent Shelby’s photos could only be viewed with distain by most and viewed as exploitive by many.

Growing up in Colorado and traveling extensively across North America I have seen many cultural examples of the contentedness amidst seeming poverty portrayed in Shelby’s photographs. I say seeming poverty because Shelby’s images portray lives rich in family, tradition, and complexity. None the less, when I first viewed these works via the New York Times online this morning, the visceral shock and wonder of them hit me on a gut level.

This is powerful stuff! These photos show the many faces of the holler where Shelby grew up. To view the photos in context is important. Knowing Shelby has had an on-going relationship with these people says everything: they are not ashamed so why are others ashamed for them?

Perhaps others are ashamed to be unhappy and discontented in the face of Shelby’s people when they themselves have so much?

By: » A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words: The Ethics of Photography That's So Deep

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:46:59 +0000

[...] photos and believes they are witnessing “real” people and therefore know their experience? (Sociological Images has a great article about this set of Appalachian photos and the debate about [...]

By: B.

B. — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:35:00 +0000

Even if he is portraying the most poverty stricken groups of the area how does that make it wrong? Plenty of people photograph the poor and homeless of the country. It doesn’t change anything. He’s purposely focusing on them to show who they are and he’s not denying that. After all would you want to look at photos of a bunch of middle class families sitting on a couch in an average house watching tv? I doubt it, and I doubt any real photographer would want to photograph that either. It’s art, as long as it doesn’t break any laws there are no restrictions over how and what you photograph and noone has the right to try to impose any. If you don’t like or approve of it either don’t look at it, or go take those photos of the middle class family and see how many people you can get to look at them let alone pay for them. And as far as the posing of the subjects goes, who cares?! Photographers pose people all the time! Just because he asked a certain person to smile and another to stand in his underwear doesn’t change the fact that they are still standing in front of their homes made of sheet metal and wallpapered in newspaper. This is still their life no matter how you pose the subject.

By: Nancy Schwartzman

Nancy Schwartzman — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:13:26 +0000

Thanks for this post and the questions you pose at the end. I always felt reassured that Adams is from Appalachia and connected to the region, not an outsider looking in. Not sure if that really makes a difference, per se, but he to my eye, he is clearly at home in the work and the images appear to have been crafted carefully and over a period of some time.

The imagery reminds me some of Sally Mann, but I think her relationship to subject/sexuality is far more fraught and deserving of critique, due to the consent or nonconsent issues around her children.

By: a woman

a woman — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 06:40:01 +0000

““They [the pictures] call for a very sophisticated kind of reading. And I’m not sure that these people have the education, the visual educational background, to understand how these pictures read.”

Others suggest that that doesn’t give the Appalacians enough credit.”

It’s not so much giving credit for so called “sophistication” as it is acknowledging that the audience which is viewing these images is steeped in a different visual culture than the subjects of the images, and will thus interpret these images in ways that the subjects cannot possibly not comprehend, just as these art buffs can’t comprehend exactly how these Appalachian people would view staged images of them.

By: zoe

zoe — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 06:55:42 +0000

well said.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 02:15:49 +0000

Here’s the thing, Shelby L. Adams is a portrait photograppher. By definition, portrait means portraying something. He’s portraying an image as he sees it. It is artistic license. If you’ve seen the documentary, you can tell he has compassion for the people, he provides groceries, appliances, and yes, a pig. What we see is his perception as he wants us to see it. Maybe he does ‘buy’ the people by bringing them ‘gifts’ of food and necessities. They are not buying his product, he is paying them for their service in the way that they need most. I’ve lived in the south all of my life and done very extensive travelling through every southern state, seeing all walks of life and know enough of the various people/lifestyles to know that when people don’t have a formal or traditional education, it does not mean they are ignorant. Watching him you can tell he’s doing his best to be sure that they are comfortable enough and understanding enough to be sure they know what he’s talking about. Yes, there is controversy, but it is their real life, hard as it may be. If it weren’t for people like Shelby preserving these images, they would be lost to lore. Afterall, you don’t hear the same kind of criticism, say, of Cold Mountain, which showed similar, yet different era, of the same kind of lifestyle. Reality is that in the Appalachian areas, poverty is still at the pre-Civil War era level. I think he’s done a wonderful job.

By: Pearl

Pearl — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:15:24 +0000

Documenting people as they are you can do various kinds of emphasis. But the documentation of people in their homes does give a sort of dignity. Steve Evans does something the same with General Store Publishing. Heart & Soul, for example, is going among the ‘common people’ in their homes.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=YhP1Y5GzNzUC&pg=PA200&dq=general+store+publishing+Steve+Evans&hl=en&ei=h7N-TPejG8SUnAeP-LHwAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=general%20store%20publishing%20Steve%20Evans&f=false

In this case they added a section of in their own words to accompany the portraits.

both this and Shelby’s catch a transient moment in time that isn’t photoshopped and of the young people paid and framed to sell perfume. it’s nice to have these sort of images around and people who will document for decades.

By: Melanie Jackson

Melanie Jackson — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:19:17 +0000

To begin with, I am an appalachian myself being raised in Western NC, with deep roots in the Scotch-Irish and Cherokee cultures. Shelby Adams’ book is not the first to deal with this subject matter. Horace Kephart is renowned for his work in that area, even though pictures sometimes move the emotions more quickly than words do. I have had relatives that lived in such a manner as described in both books. Most of them are deceased now. To say that Adams is not a realist is to say you’ve never seen such families and or living conditions and certainly never spent time with such families. I don’t believe he’s branding anyone or any culture. The pictures are real! I have seen such for myself. The people though living differently than most, seem relatively happy. Guilt, that’s what most people feel when viewing his pictures.

By: Martha Quigley

Martha Quigley — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:12:12 +0000

Every country has its Appalachia. Every land has its poor people, who smoke, drink, hoard, kill to eat, smell, live in filth. If Shelby Lee Adams is such a realist where are his images of the people who bathe, work or go to shool, stay neat and clean, live and eat healthfully, who incidentally live in Eastern Kentucky?

His work is definitely a continuation of the branding of Appalachia with these pictures of the people he has carefully selected. The impressions are unmistakeable. No one who views his work can come away with any other reaction but the one he imprints.

By: eshamlin

eshamlin — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:57:16 +0000

Very well said.