Rural Portraiture

by Becky

I discovered Shelby Lee Adams in a fashion blog, of all places.

Mr. Adams photographs "authentic salt-of-the-earth" Kentuckians and does so in a way that doesn't make a circus out of the rural individuals.

It must be true, the New York Times agrees.



Of his work, Shelby Lee Adams writes, "The families who occupied this land for more than a couple hundred years are now interspersed with a new breed of Appalachian and land developers driving Hummers and Escalades, owning oddly shaped swimming pools and mansions built into the mountaintops after the coal is removed and the mountains reclaimed..."



"...To go into the woods nowadays can be dangerous and surprising..."



"...One has to be watchful not to stumble upon a booby-trapped marijuana field or abandoned meth houses, or be surprised by a bear or a coyote, or even the striking appearance of a wandering, imported elk herd..."



"...It is a more varied and diluted world now..."



"...Salt preserves wholesomeness and prevents decay, but the people from the earlier, harder-formed age who bear that special look are now in decline."



What I like about this work is that it illustrates a way of life that is entirely foreign to most folks.



As Sherman Jacobs, the gentleman holding the hog's head above, told Mr. Adams, "It’s real life and it’s the way we live. People away from here, they got all they need in life, they got new homes, new cars. They don’t know what it is to live a poor person’s life. People enjoys livin from day to day, makin it on their own, not out here crookin somebody or stealin something to make it; just makin it, surviving on their own..."



"...That’s the way Kentucky people are. We just enjoy doin it, because it’s everyday things. If I go out here today and make enough to survive to the next day, I’m tickled to death. Long as I’ve got dinner on the table for my family."