Monday, July 16, 2007

Links to Other Sites and Early Work - Updated December 2023

Benny and Arch, 2006
[Click on above image for slide show viewing only.]



"Benny and Arch", 2006, Family with Photo Assistant Aron, after making Polaroids and film image above.


Benny holding exhibition print given to family in 2007 with grandson.
Book, "salt & truth," with "Benny and Arch" picture published, given to family in 2012.



         It has been my commitment, to photograph the many diverse people from back home, always returning to the source of my life, to value and bring forward a more all-inclusive humanity, to try and understand the complexities we each carry within ourselves, and our reactions one to another. My objective is to communicate more from the perceptions of a family member, to that kindred part in each of us, that all might experience — seeing without judging. Exploring the unknown side of any family, culture, or society leaves one open to another’s scrutiny. Within that vulnerability strength arises. People, who are overlooked, tell me they feel displaced; it is the under recognized, I turn my attention. My photography is about seeing ourselves at home more openly and honestly overcoming stereotypes. Acceptance of each other is essential to break apart learned conditioned differences, breaking apart boundaries of social isolation, to find integration.

Shelby Lee Adams
We Are Still One People
2013



_________ Links _________________________________________


The Guardian, July 2023, London

Harvard Art Museums Collections, June 2020 Harvard Art Museums Collections, June 2020

Feb. 2020, Polaroid Exhibit, MIT, Group exhibit,William Ewing

Soren Harbel, Jan. 2020, "Probably the Most Important Living Photographer in America - Shelby Lee Adams and his Appalachian People"

SouthBound, Jan. 2019, Current Traveling Group Exhibition, Organized by the Haley Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina.

John Baily , August 2017, Shelby Lee Adams, : Salt and Truth

Finding Heaven in the Holler, Ara Hawkins, March 31, 2017
Hort Collins, Mountain Music, and Photographs, May 2016
Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, NY January 2015
Subjectivity as a Pathway to Art: Shelby Lee Adams' True Pictures
Guggenheim Site 2010 Check out Slide Show
Shelby's Guggenheim Party, Viper, KY, Summer 2010, Black and White Magazine Interview with Renee Jacobs, Issue #81, March 2011

Visura Magazine, Portfolio represented, April '09
Scotty Stidham - YouTube [video by Shelby Lee Adams]
The Aroostook Review, Interview
Lenswork Quarterly, Volume 27: Interview Jan. 2000
Contemporary Documentary Photography in Appalachia
"Portraits and Dreams" (video & book) Wendy Ewald, Letcher Co. KY.
Rory Kennedy - Film made in Saul, KY - "American Hollow"
Smithsonian American Art Museum - 1st portfolio published
"Appalachia:A Self-Portrait,'' Edited by Wendy Ewald, funded by NEA Survey Grant 1978.

University Press of Mississippi
Mike Johnson's "The Online Photographer"

John Wyatt Photographer

"The True Meaning of Pictures" [ 2002 DVD]




__Early Work______________________

     Many cultural matrixes are different in how they see and present themselves. But, for one human to assume another is not intelligent enough to decide weather or not his image is good enough to represent himself to others might be a value judgment placed one upon another.
_______________________  


__________________________


"The history of photography needs an inside-out approach rather than an outside-in view. To deduce the spirit of the past, we must be willing to compile the hard facts."

Bill Jay


_____________________________________________


New Haircut, 1983


Linda, 1981




Cathy, 1983


Childers Landlady, 1983




Father and Son, 1982, Pistol City



Chester, 1992

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Coal Miners



Coal miner, 1993
[photo used in movie, "Fire Down Below," Stephen Segal film.]
Published in "Appalachian Legacy," 1998 
Little Leatherwood


Lee Hall - Retired Coal miner, 1983
Published in "Appalachian Portraits," 1993


Coal mining Brother's, 1992
[Published in "Appalachian Legacy," 1998]




 
Little Leatherwood Coalminer, #3, 1993, Version #1
Printed 1995
Published in "From the Heads of the Hollows."


Little Leatherwood Coalminer #3, 1993, Version 2
Printed 2022




Coalminer, 1988
published in "Appalachian Portraits, 1993."


Coalminer, Roger, 1993
Printed 2021


Coalminer in Gloves, 1993,
Printed 2022



Coal Tally, 1993
Published in salt & truth, 2010



––––––––––––––––––––––––––––


The Collins Couple, 1987



92 Year Old Man, 1975
Printed 1975




Mr. Dixon, 1985
Turkey Creek



Milt Cox, 1996




Marion Sumner and Wife, 1985
[Marion played the fiddler, character role in movie, "The Coal Miner's Daughter"]
Published in "salt&truth," 2012

Brown, 1988


Hillard, 1989


untitled, 1985
Printed 2023



T
he Couch Couple,1983
Printed 2023


Hettie, 1985
Printed 2023
Kingdom Come Creek
______________________


______________________




Kelly and Armeldia, 1983
Colly Gap


Armeldia, 1993
___________________________________________


Roy, 1986



Dave's Mother, 1973
Sand Lick



______________________________________________



Johnny and Pauline Gibson Family

                  Johnny and Pauline lived with their two son's, Merle and Colbert at Roxanne, KY, just about 7 miles from where I grew up. When my grandpa would go to the "saw mill," as we called it then, to purchase wood or have lumber cut, we would see Johnny sitting on the Roxanne bridge and I was told Johnny had been in prison and was a bad man. As I grew up, I always wanted to know Johnny and his family. Later, we became friends and photographed together.  Heddie Childers and Pauline were sisters, Hettie introduced me to the Gibson's.

Johnny, 1980 [father]
Roxanne


Pauline, 1981 [mother]


Pauline, 1980


Pauline, 1981, [version II]


Pauline Standing, 1979


Pauline and Merle [mother and son], 1981


Merle, 1979 [son]


Corbet, 1980 [son]


Johnny and Son's at Pig Pen, 1981
Published in "From the Heads of the Hollers."



Johnny's Son's at Pig Pen, 1981
Roxanne




Corrine and Aunt Pauline, 1980

_________________________________________________

My mentor, friend and associate

Art should be disturbing: it should make us both think and feel; it should infect the subconscious as well as the conscious mind; it should never allow complacency nor condone the status quo.


                                             Clarence John Laughlin


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David, 1978
 Roxanne


David, 1985, Bad To the Bone 
Neeley Branch 





Shelby Photographing David with child, 1978, Roxanne
Photo made by Mark Karpenski




____________________________________________________________________________



Doc Lundy Adams, 73
Blacky

Uncle who helped me through art school and introduced me to many of his patients, who became photo subjects and many long term friends.


_________________________________________________________________________




Grandpa Banks' Farm


Grandparent's Home, 1973
Johnson's Fork

 "From our beginnings, have we not always
 had others tell us what we should do and look like?


Dixie Banks Adams                      [Mother]


           In the summers after art school ended I would set up a darkroom in my grandpa's cellar where they kept home made canned food and potatoes, it was a perfect 68 degrees and easily darkened. I learned to develop 4x5 film by hand and did photo exercises daily, photographing family  that I could get to pose for me.



1974, Aunt Glade helping to make Z composition.
Photo made on Grandpa's porch.
Student Work.





Aunt Glade with Tom, 1973





Aunt Glade, 1975
[At kitchen sink, washing dishes as the sunlight rises moving up screen window, while tomatoes are ripening in the sun.]



Grandpa, 1974





Grandpa's Chair, 1971





64 Year's of Marriage, 1974
[photographer's grandparents]

               Grandma went blind in her old age and my grandpa combed her hair every morning on the porch when the sun was out, warming them. Her blindness had a tremendous effect on me, as a child, I tried to understand her darkness and this created in me a desire to become a visual artist who saw the world differently.





Self-Portrait with Grandma, 1974




Grandma asleep with Cat, 1974




Grandparents eating watermelon, 1973



Grandpa Banks, 1978


Grandpa Banks [left] With His Brother George, 1974
Polaroid 4x5 Neg. film.



Aunt Dorthy, 1975
[Grandpa's Sister]



______________________________________

Hot Spot School
Located at the mouth of Johnson's Fork the Holler I grew up in.
Hot Spot's name was later changed to Premium.


School Photo 1958—59
My location is at the far right corner, bottom row. To my left are two of my first cousins, Donald and Johnny Adams.

"Times certainly were different in those days. Then the law required us to open each school day with prayer."

Cuna Mae Banks, Teacher
My aunt and second grade teacher.

Published 1998 by the Letter County Historical Society

_______________________________________________________________
_________________________________



The Caudill Family




                   The first family I began photographing long-term was the Caudill family. We lived in the same holler, Johnson's Fork. The Caudill's lived on top of the mountain and my grandfathers and their family's lived in the valley below. I grew up riding my bicycle to their property line then racing down the dirt road back home, again and again.  The Caudill brother's all owned horses and mules, no cars. My father, who worked for the state highway department for awhile made the Caudill's their first graded road for automobiles to get onto their property. 


Brice, 1973
Student Work


                   Brice called my student pictures, "peek-a-boo," pictures, because of the black cloth I had to use covering my head to see through my 4x5 camera. He and I walked around together and came up with ideas and places to photograph on his grandpa Prentice's old home place, a home now abandoned, but still standing. Here a sense of freedom with Brice and his uncles was essential to my finding my own photographic vision. Making Polaroids with Brice was particularly exciting as the images triggered excitement and enthusiasm in both of us.  Using Polaroid materials has been an integral part of my work from the beginning, contributing to the collaborative nature of the work. Brice was the patient companion, subject and friend in my beginning photography.  



                  When returning from art school in Cleveland and later from other out-of-state employment, I always gave out photographs to my subjects and friends, before allowing myself to photograph them again. During summers, when in Kentucky on my grandpa's farm, I hand developed 4x5 negatives in my grandpa's cellar, checking my progress. I have always felt we owe our fellow human beings images when they allow us to photograph them. The open giving and sharing of the photographs and Polaroids has always been met with gratitude, giving recognition to my friends. Making photos with 6 month intervals between visits often stimulates new ideas in my subjects and myself. Where to photograph next or who to re-photograph - with friends, subjects, animals or myself, all this helps establish genuine relationships and builds comfort levels . Often when giving subjects photos from a previous visit, I listen to their ideas about where we will make the next photo. 


Brice 1973
Polaroid Positive/Negative Film




Brice, 1974


                     Brice, 1974 was my first published 4x5 photo. Brice and I had grown up walking to grade school together on the dirt roads and later in high school; we rode the same school bus. We have made many photos together over the years. Brice's guardian and care provider was his aunt Helen [Brice's parents were deceased]. Helen had grown up with my parents' generation: my father, mother, and all of our grandparents knew each other and worked together on their farms with their many children. Helen and her brothers Arlie, Howard and Crow, all lived on their mountain farm. There were three different houses then, when I visited. Helen and her brothers were all reared in the home of their parents, Prentice and Cindy. Later on, Helen, a single parent, owned her own home raising her three children, Melissa, Louise, and Junior or "June Bug," as everyone liked calling him. Helen was employed in town as a trusted housekeeper. After work, she came home to the job of caring for her family, which included cooking, cleaning, and gardening.  Her brothers helped her with her children. One brother, Howard, had a modest house to himself where Brice sometimes stayed when he was not at the old home place or Helen's. All the family lived in close proximity to each other.



Reference photo of Melissa [foreground] Helen's daughter, Helen [right], and Brice [back left].
1979


Melissa, '73



Brice wearing Special Olympics Medals he won at school, 1976
[Kodachrome to digital conversion - 2016] 



Brice and Tobacco Tins, 1977



Brice, 1982
Published in  "Appalachian Legacy," 1998




Brice and Tobacco Tins, 1979
[Color Kodachrome conversion to digital 2016]


Tobacco Tins




Shelby and Brice photographing near Brice's Prince Albert Tin collection.
Camera used then, Calumet 4x5 with Polaroid Back in camera.
Photographer, Mark Karpinski, 1980


Howard, Shelby and Brice, 1983, photo by Cal Kowal



Arlie, Crow and Brice, 1974
Printed 2023




Crow, 1975



Brice, '79



Christmas Day, 1976
[Crow and Brice]



Self-Portrait with Arlie, 1977 



Helen and Arlie in Mirror, 1977



Published 1979, "Appalachia: A Self-Portrait," Wendy Ewald, Editor and Contributing Photographer.
Publisher Gnomon Press, Frankfort, KY


 I had seven photographs published in this survey book from my photographing with the Caudill family with several more with the Childers family. This was my first group publication.

"Christmas Day, 1976'' and "Melissa and Brice, 1978," with others. This series of photos was approved with the family's full knowledge and consent. I gave a copy of this book to the Caudill's in 1979. 

Award - The work was added by the National Endowment for the Arts Survey Grant Program for fieldwork and photography, the project received a matching publication grant award from NEA.

Seven photographers participated and are represented.

Printed by
Rapoport Printing Co. using their Stonetone Process



"Appalachian Portraits," my first solo book, was published in 1993, by
University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, Miss.



                 Appalachian Portraits [my first monograph] also contained three photos of the Caudill family. I selected the Caudill photos to begin and end the series. "Christmas Day, 1976," followed by "Melissa and Brice, 1978." I chose to end my first photo book with, "Brice and Crow on Porch, 1992." My intent was that, the viewer hopefully would see within the photographs real established relationships throughout the book, not to just see examples of a project or conditions. I continue visiting the Caudill family and photographing with Brice and Crow. In 1993, I proudly gave the Caudill's a copy of my first book, "Appalachian Portraits." Now Crow is deceased.



                         I am posting here excerpts from these two first publications with a more complete set of photos of the Caudill family. Some of these photos have never been assembled together before or exhibited. As is always my practice, the family is always given copies of photos within a year when made and (I ask that they approve of their usage. I am posting [photos] here to illustrate my method of making photos in a fuller, more complete context. Not to say all are publication quality or diverse enough. The annual ritual of visiting, revisiting and re-photographing people, as well as presenting them photos is a custom I have embraced all my professional life when photographing back home. 




 "Time spent with people making pictures

 together, let’s them reckon' their pictures

 out for themselves."

                                                                                 Arlie Caudill 




               The layouts with the photographs of the Caudill's in both publications present a special part of our lives shared together. The photographs are intended to mirror our trust and interconnectedness and to share a part of our culture perhaps unknown to many. The work is subjective and autobiographic, not intended to be an over view of Appalachia, but personal experience 




                    " Shelby Lee Adams's subjects peer at the camera with an immodest curiosity. The viewers peer back, creating a circular scrutiny, an unsettling intensity-an education, as we turn page after page of portraits, which evoke fear, anger, compassion, empathy, and finally, a deeper connection to the brotherhood of man. Adams offers us an understanding and sensitivity to the frailty and strength of the human condition without compromising the human dignity of his subjects. Shelby Lee Adams is to be applauded for this extraordinary accomplishment: a portrait of a people undertaken without the sentimentality which often obscures the reality of a particular region's life."

Robert Coles - 1993, an endorsement from "Appalachian Portraits."



                  The repetitive making of the portraits with the physical visiting is necessary for a complete involvement, a gratifying and open process, witnessed here by the number of images made over a long period of time. The subjects tell the photographer their stories, leading to new associative discoveries, insights and experiences only revealed to one's friends. This was never an intentional direction, more an intuitive occurrence, happening over time, again and again. Information shared by individuals contributes to more complex compositions in the next year's photographs or sometimes the opposite direction is taken, where a picture is made more deconstructed and simplified. From year to year this changes, visits can reflect life changing consequences in both photographer and subject alike, presenting the viewer with more subtle perspectives. I sometimes ask my subject to think about the most important thing [good or bad] that has ever happened to them, while I photograph them looking into the camera lens. 

 

As the artist in me distills information, seeing personal and natural gestures, hearing stories and life histories, I more fully understand the person before me. Visual images form and store in my mind. This influences the direction and visceral feel of future photographs to be made. A kindred bonding usually occurs between us as confidence builds. I often invite my subject to contribute to the making of their photographs, sharing and discussing Polaroids as we make photographs is important. I always say be natural, be yourself.  I sometimes direct folks to look and search for their own reflection in the lens, we talk, and they often recall events, sometimes something deeper comes to mind, and I then try and capture that moment. This concentration relaxes most people from the nervousness of posing for portraits. Then we may photograph again, perhaps they become absorbed with different thoughts or something very specific in mind, I again expose film. I understand their fortitude, openness and unguardedness, like nowhere else, but in our mountains. This welcoming in “openness” keeps me returning.



                 Portraits can provide a foundation for the viewer to perceive feeling unencumbered and participate in part with another's life. On our own we might never be interested enough to encounter another’s path. Experiencing specific photographs privately and personally can reveal much about our conscious and unconscious selves inviting us to examine our assumptions and predetermined mind sets. 


               The intent of my portraits is to inspire an unrestrained awareness and acceptance of mountain people. To view and study our collaborative portraits, mirrors life in harmony and struggle together from varied perspectives. Studying these portraits can introduce us to a more wide-ranging humanity, dissolving differences, overcoming fears, establishing real connections; guiding us to find reception or for some hold distance within our psyche. It is through this personal focusing that some experience empathy, embracing differences in our humanity, discovering the basic needs of all people’s in one’s self. Still only imagining what another's life is really like.



        This process of portrait making originated and culminated for me with the Caudill family.




               When I visit mountain families I am constantly presented with family photo albums. As we look and examine them together the excitement we share is contagious.  Photos represent time and family history. The pictures are always personal, and usually enable people to be open and expressive. But for some Appalachians, certain photographs of our common humanity set off self-doubting alarms to make some narrow their perspective, sometimes to the extent of excluding some of their own family and neighbors; to be replaced as unseen, with something "pretty" or false -- that which we are not.


               Some peoples humanity and situations are difficult to accept, but do we really have a choice to blindly exclude anyone? I know that some photographers come to our mountains to only see and find our worse conditions, never seeing the unique human openness and generosity offered. For me, to deny or ignore another's existence seems criminal. Insider or outsider makes no difference. With patience, kindness and care, confidence can be established on all sides, but not all are participating. Some local successful now shamed by our history with poverty and the stereotyping put upon us by the media—isolate themselves. Some working class people reject our poor and segregate their families because the media has shamed us. We find, reveal, affirm and display our oneness and warmth, but we must reach out first accepting all of our people. I feel photography can help us with this insecurity by society becoming more familiar with All our own. 


First page of layout in "Appalachia: A Self-Portrait,"
"Melissa and Brice," 1978, on right side, published 1979.

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Documentary, Posed and Staged Pictures

                                 

 

Growing up in Eastern Kentucky during The War on Poverty years was my introduction to photography. In 1964 Lyndon Baines Johnson, U.S. President, came to Inez, Kentucky to launch his poverty program. I was 13 years old then. Many notable magazines and filmmakers came to Appalachia to do stories. Later, my cousin, Hobert Ison shot and killed a Canadian filmmaker for filming on his property without permission in 1967. I was a junior in high school then. This incident affected many of us and became International news. 

 

In my home county for over a decade there were so many visiting photographers and filmmakers they became a cliche. Most photographers worked with small 35MM cameras, some with motor drives. Folks told me you couldn’t tell what they were photographing. A few photographers solicited locals, social workers and teachers to introduce them to subjects. My uncle Doc Adams still ran his medical practice, and the media people would ask him for introductions. He often called me to show photographers around. Most of the media people told folks they would send them copies of photos they had taken, most never did. Several families were embarrassed and shamed by the published stories on poverty they received second hand from church groups sending in recycled reading materials with used clothes.

 

Despite this, I still wanted to study photography. In 1974, graduating from art school, I purchased a used 4 x 5 Calumet camera and tripod with a Polaroid back.  Working in a straightforward manner, my subjects and I felt more comfortable seeing where the big camera was at all times, and also viewing Polaroids, which I immediately gave to them. This created an atmosphere where everyone felt more at ease.

 

I think it’s helpful to refer to one specific photograph in explaining the process of making photographs with my subjects. I have selected here, “Brice and Crow on Porch with Puppies, 1992, Buck Lick”. 

 

 

 


Brice and Crow on Porch with Puppies, 1992, Buck Lick, KY


 

       For the most part my approach to photography has been classified as documentary or straight photography. I think of my work as personal, autobiographical and creative. Visiting with several families often over a period of years making new portraits most every year, I also call my work collaborative. My subjects may ask to be photographed in a location personal to them, sometimes holding an object important to them for example, a pet, a child or baby. Because I often portray my subjects straightforwardly, one may say my photography is staged. But staged implies that something is arranged or altered ahead of time or planned for repetition, as in a play, performed and sometimes rehearsed. My subjects and I select environments they want to be photographed in, their homes or on their porches with minimal change to the environment. I ask my subjects simply to relax, think about something important to them and be natural.

 

 My work is spontaneous, making several images each session searching for a natural and communicative composition. In portrait making a revealing portrait shares some kind of connection and exchange between the photographer and his subject, that often can’t be repeated. A well-performed play can be an incredible experience, yet fabricated in parts. I’m trying to express myself with my people authentically. How one utilizes light and the moments photographed contributes to the liveliness and vigor of the humanity photographed. I see lighting as a tool likened to an artist paint brush which can reveal and portray varied states, assisting us in making images in a more personal space of the subject’s choosing.       

 

             In my approach I tend to let people pose themselves, then I might make some suggestions from my observations. Some define that as formal because the subject is aware of the camera. To have one's subjects aware of being photographed is more engaging and relies upon cooperation. I ask them often to be thinking about something important in their lives and look into the lens finding themselves. Posing makes some timeless images, but can also portray the superficial, like models assume awkward positions when in the studio and directed. I ask my subjects to settle and be natural as much as possible and I repeat, be still and let yourself look into the lens.

 

In the example of Brice and Crow, we find Crow stoically sitting at home in a porch swing. He never moves in any of his pictures, you might say he is formally posing himself. Brice was different in each picture, more spontaneous and freer to express himself as you see in his smiling face. Add in the puppies who can’t be posed or staged, and you have a mixed composition. Individuals see the same photographs differently.

 

       For me selecting a subject you are drawn to is often someone you identify and empathize with. There has to be some basic connection to make a good portrait with anyone. One could describe that as finding and sharing common ground. To discover and know your subjects, becoming friends, is a rewarding enrichment.

 

 Crow and Brice are uncle and nephew, living in the same holler where we were all raised, along with my parents and grandfathers before me. We lived in Johnson's Fork, a part of Eastern Kentucky spanning three different generations, seedlings from our grandfathers, who all farmed, plowed the hillsides and bottoms with horses and mules. We shared many experiences. Still, hurtful differing opinions are perpetuated by those from a different class who are ashamed of those who live in the hollers, but both are still part of the region’s culture. Perhaps in the past, in times when more participated in farming and plowing the hill sides, we were more tolerant. We knew we needed each other, and needed the land, to feed ourselves. The holler farms, and subsistence living, demanded everyone's cooperation, if we were to survive and prosper.

 

We all grew up seeing and experiencing exploitation, especially of those who are really poor. The holler people tell me how they are manipulated today by their own, taken advantage of and abused. As a mountain culture many have poor self-esteem, not just those without, but those successful as well, in part because of all the media’s attention is embarrassing. So, when some work hard and are moderately successful they respond critically when they see a photograph of some of their own humbly portrayed. They say the photographer is exploiting us, not knowing the photographer’s intentions or the subject’s situation. Denying recognition of the persons humanity photographed, just remarking judgmentally how others may see them, the new Appalachians. I seek to photograph a deeper portrayal-- of one’s soulfulness and expressiveness that reflects generations of mountain people from times past into the present.

 

When I exhibit and share my work with most audiences, I recognize there is legitimate interest. Nationally and internationally my work has been collected by over 60 museums and private collections. When attending art school I was advised, don’t make your focus on the poor, there is no money in it. Prosperous and educated people who purchase my prints are interested in seeing that my work is preserved and continues. Some may be interested in the history and tradition of documentary photography and others are interested in the aesthetic and humanistic vision my images engage. From different cultures, economic backgrounds and beliefs photo enthusiasts share their experiences. From volunteering in the Peace Corp, working on Indian reservations, in ghettoes, their own life experiences and with people in general, many photo collectors communicate and share engaging human stories. 

 

 What income comes from print sales, that money partially funds my next trip back home to the hollers of Kentucky and I help those in need that I can. This has always been a labor of love not a profit-motivated venture. My photography encompasses a view reflecting part of our culture that many are not familiar with, and have not often seen. Some may say we are getting rich selling pictures of poor people. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is my calling. Until we see our “own” more clearly and with compassion our poor will remain the same.

 

Traveling into the hollers I am seeking out the authentic. From my 40 years of field work it seems to me if neighbors cared more for neighbors, people’s lives would be better. Prejudice exists in one form or another throughout most cultures. 

 

One never really knows another's thoughts and internal life, which in part is what fascinates me about making portraits; we are always guessing. We get close making photographs, yet so much is still unknown. Psychology has become important to my portrait work because of my encountering some distinctive people. Human behavior: how we think, look, feel and act is infinite in its complexity as is how we affect each other.

 

As a high school student, I traveled with my uncle the country doctor visiting his patients in the hollers and I learned a lot about people. Fragile folk need more time, care, recognition and encouragement. Mountain people often want their families photographed together including all members of the family and I have always understood this. 

 

 I want to grasp and express something from the heart with my portraits to help bring society together. If we could support those unseen in overcoming their often-self-imposed exile, we could make progress. The recent drug epidemic in the region is a problem that needs more attention and action legally, socially and geographically. I’ve found that family pictures are important to our people. Placing my subjects’ images in my photo books with their families and distributing copies in the hollers builds self-confidence, but they also need much more community support and engagement.

 

              Ideals of how others think we should look and be and live within a larger society, are possible but not always desirable here. Having grown up with Brice, his uncle Crow and their larger family, they exemplify the natural primal part of our authentic culture, accepting themselves as they are. Today a more modern media savvy view is growing. It has been my intentions all along to photograph our unique authentic mountain people with their fullest cooperation before they disappear.

 

—Shelby Lee Adams

Reedited Feburary 2024


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“The Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth and men do not see it.”
-Gnostic Gospel According to Thomas



Truth
Today we are suspicious of "Truth," because we recognize that what is called truth is often only a tool in the hands of those in power [the media], and is often determined by their beliefs and tailored to their requirements.


—Lionel Corbett




In Our Holler

In our holler, we grew up bonding or rejecting each other with varied and inconsistent emotions about our families, neighbors and specific individuals. The denying part, by some of our people to our less positioned folk is what erodes and replaces our authenticity. We really can’t hide our roots, we are here for that depiction, to accept all. Everyone needs and desires acceptance and affirmation with respect that defines a complete human being. Each of us is here ever so briefly, to struggle, envision and clarify, finding in our hearts more common ground or remaining split-off forever. At all levels of our society to save ourselves, we need to be integrating and making in-roads with our diversified yet deeply linked humanity. At least, that is my intentions with my photography, overcoming superficiality by embracing the people straightforwardly, demystifying and dissolving stereotypes, exposing regional and national misunderstandings and prejudice against rural peoples and all peoples in general.

—Shelby Lee Adams



"My sense is that photographs share many characteristics with Rorschach ink blots. That is, the things people think of to say about photographs are often more revelatory of viewers than they are of the subjects of the photographs they are looking at."

-John N. Wall






The Torn Cap, 1980
[Howard]


Arlie, 1977




Arlie, 1981



Arlie's 24 year old dog, Arlie cared for this dog until he died.
1982





Caudill's Kitchen, 1980



Arlie & Crow, 1975
Brothers, both Brice's uncles.




Crow, 1983




Crow, 1985



Thou art that

"Individuation is but an appearance in a field of space and time, these being the conditioning forms through which my cognitive faculties apprehend their objects. Hence the multiplicity and differences that distinguish individuals are likewise but appearances. They exist, that is to say, only in my mental representation. My own true inner being actually exists in every living creature as truly and immediately as known to my consciousness only in myself. This realization, for which the standard formula in Sanskrit is tat tvam asi, is the ground of that compassion upon which all true, that is to say unselfish, virtue rest and whose expression is in every good deed."


Arthur Schopenhauer



Brice by Stove, 1981




Brice and Crow with Stove, 1987


 "Some with less have  more to offer, 
their natural  loving selves."
                                                                      Rachel Riddle




Buck Lick

                    Crow moved from his old home in Johnson's Fork to an abandon house and farm on Smoot Creek, in a holler called Buck Lick.  I would visit Brice and his family most trips, then Brice and I would drive together to visit Crow who then lived approximately 10 miles away. This was near the winter of 1993. Crow basically was house sitting at a farm in Buck Lick for the owner of the property. In our region, often when homes are abandoned or vacant for long periods of time, arson occurs and homes are destroyed. In this case, even though Crow occupied this dwelling and farm, someone burned it down.     



Brice and Crow on Porch with Puppies, 1992
Published in, "Appalachian Portraits," 1992.
Buck Lick



Original Polaroid made Thursday June 11, 1992



Crow and Brice under Peach Tree, 1993
Published, "Appalachian Legacy," 1998.
Buck Lick

I asked Crow once what he did that made him happy. He smiled and said the following: When it’s a really hot day and I can afford to, I like to get myself a quart of moonshine, a loaf of light bread and a big roll of bologna, I cut with my pocketknife. I find myself a big rock on the mountain in the hot sun and just lay down and sip on that shine, eat and just sweat, until I go to sleep.

 

—Crow Caudill



Crow with Tomato Cans, 1994
Buck Lick


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Back to the Old Home Place



4x5 Polaroid from 1996, Brice and Crow at back of old home place, after winter insulation was installed.



Brice and Crow, 1996
Printed 2022




Brice and Crow with Dog, 1990






Brice and Crow at Trailer, 1997
Published in "Appalachian Legacy," 1998.


                    This photo at my fathers trailer was my last photo made with Brice and Crow together. Crow died not too long after this photo was made. Helen and her children had purchased this trailer from my father. He had bought the trailer after our home had burned down a few years before. In 1998, I gave Helen a copy of "Appalachian Legacy," my second monograph containing the last portraits I’d made of Brice and Crow. Helen thanked me, saying she loved the "old time lookin' pictures." In her older age she had gotten tired and needed to move off the mountain. She liked living in my dad's trailer where "everything was handy." She missed the old home place terribly, but she could no longer keep it up. She died while living in this trailer. After Helen's death the property and trailer were sold to a coal mining company. Land, once my family home. Brice moved back onto the mountain where he was raised.




 After Crow died, our picture making felt unfinished. Yet, completed in that I couldn’t experience Crow anymore, such an iconic mountain man. I continue to visit Brice, but  lost the desire to photograph him alone, yet our relationship continues. Helen, Crow, Arlie and Howard are now all gone and so is a part of our culture. When visiting Brice alone, making snapshots seems to be the only photography we do. In the 70’s after perusing my photo education I wanted to make the most engaged, revealing and honest portraits possible, knowing I could do so as my memories recalled vast amounts of genuine information. So, for nearly 40 years I have returned intermediately photographing hopefully making a few good images. 

The Caudill’s accepted me totally, which meant I could completely concentrate on making my photos when visiting. At first, I just focused on photographing Brice. Later, I made many portraits with Arlie and Crow and Brice together, anticipating and longing for each new image to be my best. It always seemed the best images came easily.

 Relationships pave the way to definitive and revealing portraits. Each visit and photo session I try to make the timeless, everlasting photograph. I experience the people and environments, feeling at home and rooted to this place. I give out photos to the families each time I return so that they are clear and understand what I am doing.

 I wonder, is there some kind of higher charisma to channel into, helping us portray just what it is to be human? My intentions have always been to photograph another authentically and in good conscienceTo photograph our shunned and isolated humanity so often disregarded is vital. To befriend indifference, learning to communicate with those difficult to understand is challenging, but we must try. Sometimes you wonder what exactly you are trying to come to terms with. But you can't give up. To work together gesturing, talking and making photographs is mutually gratifying, sharing living, breaking down barriers building confidence. Looking intently photographing ourselves reveals who we are to each other if nothing else, no matter the circumstances. Hopefully we can search, find and open multiple pathways of seeing accepting each other.        

 

—Shelby Lee Adams




Shelby and Brice, 2002

"This is a great picture. Brice now has a 4-wheeler so he doesn't have to walk everywhere any more. Still got the same great smile and the "chaw." I think he has a crush on me...He grins like a possum when you see him!"

—Valerie Kay Adams, 1st cousin to Shelby


Shelby Photographing at the Caudill's, 1983, Photo by Cal Kowal






Summer 2012, I revisited Brice with our old school mate from our Hot Spot Elementary School days, Mary Ellen Noble Kelly, who is a retired social worker. This photo was made in the same doorway Brice and I made our first published picture together in 1974.




Brice photographed holding, Kentucky Monthly magazine published Sept. 2014. 
Brice holding magazine open to Brice and Crow's photo from 1992.
That September, we celebrated our 40 year friendship.


Brice and Shelby, 2018, photo by Heidi




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