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Appalachian Legacy: Photographs | 
 enlarge | Creator: Shelby Lee Adams
Publisher: Univ Pr of Mississippi (Txt)
Category: Book
Buy Used: $154.61
Used (5) from $154.61
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 2177587
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 132
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 11 x 10.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1578060486
Dewey Decimal Number: 975
EAN: 9781578060481
ASIN: 1578060486
Publication Date: July 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers! Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Not Appalachian legacy - the legacy of photography February 9, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Anybody really interested in understanding this book should check out a documentary called "True Meaning of Pictures," in which Adams and several Appalachian scholars and art critics debate his pictures in more depth than anybody can do at Amazon.
For my part, I think that for all his great skill as an artist, when you boil it all down, Shelby Lee Adams is a disingenuous and irresponsible photographer who doesn't have the social conscience he says he has. Adams defends his work by saying that these photographs are not meant to be documentary photographs, but "art" and therefore do not have to portray reality. (In fact, the people he portrays are essentially models -- none of these shots were taken spontaneously or "in action." As you can see in the documentary, their postures and expressions were considerably manipulated by Adams.)
Adams has every right to create the kind of art he wishes, but considering the damage that art photographers have done (and still do) to places like Appalachia through their fixation on "artistic" subjects like poverty and industrial dilapidation, you would think that Adams might have had a little more tact and chosen another subject for his art and a less stereotyped setting than Eastern Kentucky.
As an example of the potential impact Adams' photos can have, one of the images in "Appalachian Legacy" depicts a man holding a knife standing next to his mentally-handicapped son. According to the photographer, this is an allegory of God sacrificing his son Jesus. I don't care where you come from or whether you've ever been to Appalachia: the overwhelming majority of people in America viewing this picture for the first time are probably going to think "this is an ignorant hillbilly trying to kill his retarded son." Unless the symbolic connection Adams wants us to make is made, then this picture is not art but a piece of irresponsible photography. If Adams thinks otherwise, then I think he puts too much trust in the average American viewer.
Adams has never deliberately sought to misrepresent the people of Eastern Kentucky (in fact, he is from the region himself and the people in this book are personal friends of his), but that's what he ends up doing. What I doubt isn't Adams' intentions. I doubt his social conscience and his plain common sense. If he really wanted to make an artistic statement about human resilience and the beauty of Appalachia, there is an enormous amount of photographic leg-room room to maneuver in besides doing staged black-and-white character studies of the poorest of the poor, obviously reminiscent of Depression-era photography. I think the kind of social conscience Adams awakens in other people is exactly the kind that Appalachia doesn't need: sympathy. It needs identification and understanding. Adams' photography has just about nothing to do with the grassroots struggle against poverty and miseducation in places like Eastern Kentucky. What Adams is primarily interested in is the visual effect of light on bodies and walls. As an artistic endeavor, that is a perfectly legitimate pursuit, but Adams should have had more tact than to try to achieve it at the expense of Appalachia.
The fact that many people in Appalachia have been outraged by Adams' books ought to tell you something. Cavalier "artistes" from the East Coast and the legion of disembodied museum curators who come to their defence can boo-hoo about Dwight Billings and other people with a real social conscience who dare to criticize one of "their kind". I'd prefer to trust the people who actually live in Appalachia: they're the ones who have to deal with the issues created by Adams. If Adams was photographing an upscale New Jersey suburb full of folks with degrees from Princeton, I wouldn't think twice about calling his photographs great works of art. But he's not. He's photographing Appalachia, and that requires a little more tact.
 Taken There... March 24, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am astounded at some of the reviews who said that this book, and it's author, are exploiting the subjects therin. Shelby Adams has gone to great lengths to describe his methods and the families that he photographs - much more transparency and information than I have EVER seen in another documentary photo book. Read it carefully and try to understand it before you come to conclusions....
I was transfixed by the book and could not put it down. Yes, it is disturbing, but y'know, life is like that. This is not a book to be flipped through and returned to the coffee table. This is a book to be chewed and ingested - one that takes some thought and time to experience. If you are ready, come. You won't be disappointed.
Open your mind instead of your mouth March 17, 2004
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
The few reviews I've read speaking ill of Adam's work are silly. You obviously have not read the text that accompany's the photographs. He does not seek to humiliate or degrade these people. He does not march into their homes "demanding" pictures of them, as one person says. He opens our mind to another way of living. If you look at the photographs and accompanying text, you'll see just the opposite of this negativity that you accuse him of. The depth of this book is wonderful and eye opening.
Think before you speak January 26, 2004
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A very, very impressive book with a careful view on people that do deserve their place in history and somehow find a way to keep on their sunny side of life. The writings in this book indeed complement the realistic photography in a respectful way, and at no stage did I have the idea that anything or anyone was depicted in a derogatory or otherwise negative manner. Instead, it showed REAL people that may differ from the ones that you encounter in many other environments, but without the obligatory glamour and gloss that society forces onto us. Today is a great day to stop making judgements.
Confusing January 11, 2004
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I grew up in rural Kentucky in an area where conditions were very similar to those in the Appalachian region. My first viewing of this book disturbed and angered me. I asked myself how someone could make a coffee table book out of subject matter which embarassed me because of where I grew up! I knew and grew up with people no different than this and didn't like seeing what I was seeing. It was a bittersweet sensation. It was a paradox for me. On the one hand, I have beautiful memories of growing up in rural Kentucky. On the other hand, I've never been able to figure out how people could live like this. After reading the narrative, searching my soul, and talking with my wife, I realize that these people aren't dissatisfied with life! They live hard lives but still enjoy life just like my family did. We rarely had two dimes to rub together but I was always happy. Life was good. Now this book has a home on my coffee table and I look at it with fond memories and affection for the people who live there.
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