Appalachia
I'm happy to have my work featured in the EYES ON THE SOUTH photo blog over at Oxford American. They're running 22 images from Testify. You can see the entire piece here.
Thanks for looking!
So, my portfolio site is experiencing technical difficulties. While I'm in the process of rebuilding it, I wanted to share my Testify project statement as well as another look at the book dummy I'm working on. Thanks for your patience and I'll let you know when my portfolio site is up and running again.
Testify is a visual love letter to Appalachia, the land of my blood. This is my testimony of how I came to see the importance of home and my connection to place. After moving away as a teenager, I’ve struggled to return, to latch on to something from my memory. These images are a vignette into my working through the problem of the construction of memory versus reality. My work embraces the raw beauty of the mountains while keeping at arms length the stereotypical images that have tried to define Appalachia for decades.
The word ‘testify’ carries both a religious and legal meaning. In the pentecostal holiness churches of home, a portion of time during a church service is devoted to allowing members to share publicly what God has done in their lives; their testimony. In legal terms, one’s testimony is a statement accepted, sworn under oath, believed to be true and acceptable.
I am both an insider and an outsider and though I maintain a safe distance in my photographs, I attempt to invite you into the intimacy of family, of sacred space. Testify is my bearing witness of a personal journey, of never truly being able to go home again, to seek answers from my ancestral home. Appalachia testifies of timelessness and natural beauty. The mountains testify of protection and sanctuary and at the same time the horrible destruction of mountaintop removal mining. The people of Appalachia testify of their pride and resilience. Old time religion testifies of the power in the blood and a heavenly home just across the shore.
My grandfather told me that I have two ears and one mouth, which means that I should listen twice as often as I speak. Through these images, I’ve tried to do just that - to listen more than I speak, both with my voice and my cameras. These images arise out of my pride of where I am from and where I am of, and an enduring love for Appalachia.
This is my testimony.
I've started working on a book for my Testify photographs. I'll confess I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing, but I'm having fun. That counts for something, right?
Several months ago, I bought a BLACK PINE saddle-stitched journal (it measures 7.5" x 9.5"). I didn't really have a plan for it at the time, so I put it on my bookshelf and forgot about it. Over the last few weeks, I created a new edit of the Testify work and posted 60 images on my portfolio site. I didn't spend a great deal of time sequencing the images online, but I wanted to get them out there, to get some feedback, to see how they worked together, if at all.
I decided to make some cheap 4" x 6" prints (laid out on my dining room table below) to see the work as a whole and some place other than a screen. I remembered I had the BLACK PINE journal and, after checking, there were exactly 30 blank pages and 60 prints. After a couple of evenings and a roll of two-sided tape, I put together the first book of the work.
Over the next few months, I'll be working on a PDF layout of the work as well writing the text for the book. If there's any interest, perhaps I'll put out a zine. I really like what Michael Friberg's done here. (I can't wait to get mine in the mail.)
Thanks for looking.
In 1946 Russell Lee made more than four thousand photographs throughout the Appalachian coalfields. He accepted an assignment from the Department of the Interior, which came about as a result of worsening conditions in many mines and mining camps during WWII and shortly thereafter. In 1946 the Department of the Interior and the United Mine Workers conducted a joint survey of medical, health and Mines Administration. At the time of the survey the coal industry was under government control, having been placed there by President Truman in order to end a 59-day strike by the United Mine Workers of America. As part of the unique agreement between the government and the union, the survey was undertaken to document the working and living conditions then prevalent in the industry.
These are a few of my favorites.
Russell Lee Photographic Collection, 1979, 79PA103. Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.
1. Handling serpents at the Pentecostal Church of God. Company funds have not been used in this church and it is not on company property. Most of the members are coal miners and their families. Lejunior, Harlan County, KY. 15 September 1946. 2. Miners bring in their checks and see the sign that there is no Saturday work. Lejunior, Harlan County, KY. 13 September 1946. 3. A miner. Lejunior, Harlan County, KY. 13 September 1946. 4. Mrs. Leanore Miller, widow of a miner, with a picture of her husband. She said, "There's more widows and orphans in this holler than men at work." Four Mile, Bell County, KY. 4 September 1946. 5. Rufus Sergent, his wife and son. Rufus is a son of Blaine Sergent, a coal miner for 48 years. Rufus has been working in the mines since he was 15, quitting school in the fourth grade. He is now a cutter. Lejunior, Harlan County, KY. 13 September 1946. 6. Mr. and Mrs. James Robert Howard and their four children. They live in three rooms of a two-family house. The rent is $7.90 monthly and charges for electricity run about $4 monthly. Gilliam, McDowell County, W. Va. 13 August 1946. 7. Furman Currington and his son, miners. Kenvir, Harlan County, KY. 6 September 1946. 8. Welch is the shopping and entertainment center for the nearby mining camps. Welch, McDowell County. W. Va. 25 August 1946. 9. Saturday afternoon street scene. Welch, McDowell County, W. Va. 24 August 1946. 10. Mr. and Mrs. Tudor Circo on their front porch. Raven, Tazewell County, Va. 28 August 1946.