{"id":5842,"date":"2009-01-17T02:00:56","date_gmt":"2009-01-17T07:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=5842"},"modified":"2017-09-16T16:40:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T21:40:16","slug":"art-and-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/01\/17\/art-and-representation\/","title":{"rendered":"Art and Representation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shelby Lee Adams is a photographer most famous for his pictures of Appalachia. Here is the cover one of his books<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This post\u00a0is based on a documentary about Adams work called The True Meaning of Pictures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adams has come under severe criticism.\u00a0 Critics argue that his photography exploits the poverty and disempowerment in Appalachia and reproduces negative stereotypes. The idea the Appalachian people are imbred, dumb, and barbaric was made famous in the movie Deliverance<\/a><\/em>. Here is the (at once charming and chilling) dueling banjo scene:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Critics argue, also,\u00a0that Adams features the worst conditions of life in Appalachia.\u00a0 Bill Gorman, the Mayor of Hazard, Kentucky, says:<\/p>\n

“I don’t think this is average… I think it’s the kind of thing that sells.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For example, one picture is argued to be staged. Adams admits to buying the pig and arranging the butchering (the family was too poor to have pigs).<\/p>\n

In the documentary, we also see Adams instructing his subjects in how they should stand and what facial expression to make.<\/p>\n

A.D. Coleman, an art critic,\u00a0thinks that images are purposefully made to seem\u00a0“ominous” and “spooky.”\u00a0 And, while Adams gets permission from the people in his pictures to use their images, Coleman suggests that they are not necessarily capable of understanding exactly what they are consenting to.\u00a0 He explains:<\/p>\n

“They [the pictures] call for a very sophisticated kind of reading.\u00a0 And I’m not sure that these people have the education, the visual educational background, to understand how these pictures read.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Others suggest that that doesn’t give the Appalacians enough credit.<\/p>\n

Adams argues that he’s taking pictures of his own culture. In fact, Shelby did grow up in Appalachia, though he was middle class compared to those he photographs.\u00a0 He also abdicates responsibility for any objective representation.\u00a0 He says:<\/p>\n

“I’m trying to express myself with that culture. So it’s not an objective document. It’s not an object. It’s me. It’s life. And it’s my subjects lives. Who are my friends.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can see more of his photographs here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The controversy over Adams’ work\u00a0brings up some interesting questions regarding art and representation:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 What is art for?\u00a0 Is it for representing things as they are?\u00a0 Is it for the expression of the artist?\u00a0 Is it for the furtherance of social justice?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Who decides the meaning of a picture?\u00a0 Does Adams’ intention count?\u00a0 Or does the only thing that counts what the viewer sees?\u00a0 Which viewer? \u00a0How many viewers must we predict will judge Appalachia badly upon viewing the pictures before we decide that they undermine social justice efforts (if, in fact, we decide social justice is relevant to art)?<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 If, in fact, the pictures do represent the poorest Appalachians, does that mean they should not be photographed?\u00a0 Is that criticism, in itself, a good one?\u00a0 Who gets to decide who really<\/em> represents Appalachia?<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 So what if Adams is making money off of the pictures?\u00a0 Does this make him a bad person?\u00a0 Does it make the pictures exploitative?\u00a0\u00a0When things are\u00a0done for money, does that mean that they are automatically not about love and care?\u00a0 Many of us, I imagine, sure hope that’s not true for preachers and teachers.\u00a0 So how do we decide whether the fact that Adams benefits is a problem?<\/p>\n

Thoughts?\u00a0 Other questions we could ask?<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shelby Lee Adams is a photographer most famous for his pictures of Appalachia. Here is the cover one of his books: This post\u00a0is based on a documentary about Adams work called The True Meaning of Pictures. Adams has come under severe criticism.\u00a0 Critics argue that his photography exploits the poverty and disempowerment in Appalachia and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8070,29,341],"class_list":["post-5842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-artliterature","tag-class","tag-ruralurban"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5842"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70892,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5842\/revisions\/70892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}