Appalachian Shudder
April 14th, 2009
I just finished watching a documentary on Shelby Lee Adams, a photographer who snaps stark and frightening portraits of poverty-stricken Appalachian hillbillies. In other words, the people from Deliverance. And these people, as depicted in the documentary and in the images, made my blood run cold. If I believed in Hell, my vision of Hell would be to have to live with them. I hope I don’t have nightmares, but the chance of avoiding their inbred faces in my darkest dreaming seems slim. Have a look for yourself!
Images by Shelby Lee Adams – People and Animals
Napier Family Photos by Shelby Lee Adams
There’s something so sad about that. I’m so glad my family got out of there years ago when they had the chance.
Vice Magazine of all places did a really interesting issue about Appalachia.
It’s extraordinarily sad. These people are the living embodiment of poverty: poverty of possessions, poverty of education, poverty of experiences, poverty of philosophy. I bet most of them have never travelled more than a few miles from their homes. My fear of them is based on their pure embodiment of small-town America mentality – which is death to me.
(Reposting from IE, because the comment didn’t seem to work when submitted from Chrome. Sorry if I’m just being impatient!)
Well, I just checked, and the Napiers pictured apparently aren’t related to the Napiers that *I’m* related to. I had to check, because Napier (and Combs, and Turner, and Fugate…) are very common names in Perry County, where my family comes from. So I can comment without worrying about an extended-family bias (kinda).
I understand that the first reaction to the pictures is visceral, pity tinged with fear. Newspaper for wallpaper, and weather-worn faces and hands. Obviously, the photographer was trying to show the hard nature of the environment, but she also shows the resilient nature of the people — and that’s the part I think you’re missing.
There are people here in Dallas — and Chicago, I’m sure — who embody all the aspects of poverty that the Comtesse so eloquently described. They live in subsidized housing, buy Doritos with their food stamps and trade the rest for cigarette and drugs. These are people who have a choice, and choose to stay chained to Plato’s wall.
By contrast the subjects of Ms. Adams’ photo essay are making do with what they got. Using newspaper to patch the walls isn’t a sign of desperation — its a sign of determination. They put up a fresh coat of newsprint for the photographer’s visit. That’s not the sort of poverty that comes from dependence, but the pride that comes from independence. These people were given very little choice — there aren’t a lot of jobs in the hollers. The Napiers I see in those pictures are dirt poor, but they’ve got pride — and the will to keep their independence when it would be a lot easier to move to the government housing down in Hazard.
Yes, there’s still the small-town attitude. My “radical liberal” views wouldn’t be very well received in some parts of Perry County… but there’s also parts of Dallas County (and Cook County too) where the “Palin/McCain” signs are still standing proudly in the front yard.
And judging on their “inbred faces” — well, for shame. Since when do we “enlightened” folk judge a person based on something so superficial? If you visited the holler, and they said something similar about the new President’s “black face”, I’m sure you (and I) would cringe. Bias isn’t just a hillbilly trait.
Besides, it’s a lot easier to find a girlfriend who isn’t related to you, now that the roads are paved. Though I’ll confess, the first girl I put my arm around was my great-grandpa’s granddaughter, but by his *second* wife. So it was ok.
The problem isn’t with the people, it’s with the artist. The ugliness is in Adams vision; he mentions his father’s “prejudice” against these types of people, and then proceeds to immortalize his “daddy issues”. I’ve seen much beauty in Appalachia, even at the hog killings, even in the shacks. The shudder you feel is the dark, distorted vision of Shelby Adams which is the filter through which he shoots. And his attempts to describe the nobility & dignity he’s capturing are pure-d BS. As are the fawning art critics who call him incredible. Emperor’s New Clothes. Read the Foxfire books or see the Foxfire movie for some of the beauty of Appalachia, even amongst the poorer families.
Oh, come on – don’t be so politically correct. You hear banjos when you look at those pictures too – just admit it!
Well, nothing makes me shudder more violently than the killing of an innocent animal. The hog killing is just the ultimate horror in these photographs. I actually find Shelby’s photographs to be quite beautiful… in their own frightening way. But I appreciate what you’re saying – there was something honorable in the people in the documentary. I just sense that a gay animal rights atheist liberal like myself might not be particularly welcome in their world!
@Comtesse
Well, that’s not so bad… I *like* bluegrass. Oddly, though, my grandfather *hated* the banjo, and in fact took great pains to distance himself from his poorer relations. So it almost goes without saying that I spent as much time as possible down in the holler with them, instead of up on the hill.
Not that I’d be any more welcome than y’all. I run a Dixie Chicks fan site, for goodness sakes!
I just got back from visiting my parents in Pennsylvannia who moved back there after retirement. It took two or three generations before my great-grandparents moved to Eastern PA from West Virginia so I’m really only several steps removed from this. Still, while I hate fetishizing the poor, these people seem to have more dignity than the meth-addicted Wal*Mart inhabitants of Hazelton, PA.