Adams, Shelby Lee: Appalachian Portraits
University Press of Mississippi
1993
First Edition
A native of eastern Kentucky, Smith who heads the photography program at Salem State College, here collects 50 black-and-white portraits that provide intimate glimpses of mountain people cut off from the modern mainstream. These Appalachian Kentuckians reveal a grim, hardscrabble dignity. The large families Adams visits crowd their porches for group portraits, nearly bursting out of the photographer's frame, but few members are smiling. Several photographs hint at much deeper stories: one family scene includes a midget adult in a diaper; another, in a dirt yard in front of a trailer, pictures a worn woman with a misspelled homemade tattoo: "Born to Loose." Smith ( Oral History ) offers some brief, evocative fictions that "might well" be the stories of the people pictured; still, the book could also have used more concrete information. (Nov.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
University Press of Mississippi
1993
First Edition
A native of eastern Kentucky, Smith who heads the photography program at Salem State College, here collects 50 black-and-white portraits that provide intimate glimpses of mountain people cut off from the modern mainstream. These Appalachian Kentuckians reveal a grim, hardscrabble dignity. The large families Adams visits crowd their porches for group portraits, nearly bursting out of the photographer's frame, but few members are smiling. Several photographs hint at much deeper stories: one family scene includes a midget adult in a diaper; another, in a dirt yard in front of a trailer, pictures a worn woman with a misspelled homemade tattoo: "Born to Loose." Smith ( Oral History ) offers some brief, evocative fictions that "might well" be the stories of the people pictured; still, the book could also have used more concrete information. (Nov.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
University Press of Mississippi
1993
First Edition
A native of eastern Kentucky, Smith who heads the photography program at Salem State College, here collects 50 black-and-white portraits that provide intimate glimpses of mountain people cut off from the modern mainstream. These Appalachian Kentuckians reveal a grim, hardscrabble dignity. The large families Adams visits crowd their porches for group portraits, nearly bursting out of the photographer's frame, but few members are smiling. Several photographs hint at much deeper stories: one family scene includes a midget adult in a diaper; another, in a dirt yard in front of a trailer, pictures a worn woman with a misspelled homemade tattoo: "Born to Loose." Smith ( Oral History ) offers some brief, evocative fictions that "might well" be the stories of the people pictured; still, the book could also have used more concrete information. (Nov.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.