GOST Book Description—Every summer for over 40 years, Shelby Lee Adams travelled to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky to take photographs. Now in his 70s, Adams has returned to his archive of unpublished images taken between 1974 and 2010.
His aim was to print those which may have been previously overlooked, concerned that if he did not print them in his lifetime, the photographs would never be made. Nearly 90 of these unpublished photographs are included in his forthcoming book From the Heads of the Hollers—an 11 x 14 inch portfolio book, printed in Verona, Italy, by GOST Books, London.
Shelby's subjects and friends in this and all his books receive copies of his books and photographs before they are released to the public.
Happy to share the Preview Trailer for an upcoming feature documentary about my work titled "The Spirit of the People". Screenings and more information coming soon!
Film by James Hollenbaugh, March 2024
The Washington Post Review
March 1, 2024 Perspective by Kenneth Dickerman
Resurrecting Photos from decades of work in Appalachia
Shelby Lee Adams is probably the most well-known and celebrated photographer who has depicted life in Appalachia.
Adams has been at it for decades. And the subject matter hits close to home for him. He was born in Hazard, Ky., in 1950. Unlike many photographers, who have rightly been criticized for parachuting in to make photographs of the people living in Kentucky’s hollers, Adams has been photographing “what he knows” for the past four decades.
Adams’s new book, “From the Heads of the Hollers” (Gost, 2023), compiles unpublished photos that he made between 1974 and 2010.
As the book’s publisher says, “His aim was to print those which may have been previously overlooked, concerned that if he did not print them in his lifetime, the photographs would never be made.”
As a young boy, Adams was inspired by work of the FSA (Farm Security Administration), which gathered a now-hallowed group of photographers together to document the United States during the great economic calamity of the Great Depression.
Much of that work, made by photographers including Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, is now iconic and part of the fabric of American life.
Indeed, the walls in the University of Missouri’s Lee Hills Hall, where I studied photojournalism in the late ’90s, were lined with their work, examples of a documentary tradition we were inspired to continue (yes, we knew it was essentially propaganda for the U.S. government, but it provided a blueprint for how to document everyday life in the United States].
Photos of Appalachia are often criticized for being predatory and showing people at their worst.
Adams’s photos are different for a number of reasons. First, he photographed from a place he knew, as the people and places in his images are from what you might call his backyard.
Adams also always endeavored to be open with the people in his photographs, allowing them to be a part of the process of his work. This gives his subjects a measure of dignity often neglected by photographers looking for a quick hit, diving in and out of the community and not really getting to know the people they make images of.
Adams hones his approach to making images in Appalachia by first starting to photograph his friends and family, grandparents, friends, neighbors, aunts and uncles, and so on. Again, he started by examining what and who he knew.
After starting this way, he’d then ask for introductions from people to others who might be interested in collaborating with him. Adams would work this way for decades. The people in his photographs are aware of what is going on. Indeed, Adams would bring photos back to them so they could see the results.
Once again, as the book’s publisher says:
“Often, when Adams got to know someone, he would photograph them on return visits, sometimes a couple of years apart, sometimes a decade. Each person is depicted as they chose and felt most comfortable - some sit whilst other[s] stand, some are outside their homes whilst others prefer to be photographed inside, revealing the details of their everyday lives. Some photographs show whole families, siblings, friends or lone figures but the portraits are united by the subject’s unflinching gaze towards Adams and his camera.”
---Kenneth Dickerman
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| Clay and Cora, 1999 |
