6. Shelby Lee Adams [Week 3]
Shelby Lee Adams
During our Documentary Photography lecture on October 19th we watched the Documentary film The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia, which, as is said in the title, based on the photographer Shelby Lee Adams series of photographs named Appalachia, and above is a short clip from that documentary.
Here are some questions to think about when watching the documentary.
- Is Shelby Lee Adams' work documentary is it's nature or fine art?
- Does Adams' exploit the people he has photographed?
- Does the fact that Adams' set-up his pictures make them less documentary or not documentary at all?
- Can you be a participant within the lives of those you are documenting?
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| Shelby Lee Adams. |
"The True Meaning of Pictures addresses the issue of representation in documentary photography by examining the work of American photographer Shelby Lee Adams. This documentary seeks to spend time with the subjects of Adams work, in order to get to know them better and address the controversy and response Adam's photographs generate, which involves the politics of representation. Both strands of the film will combine to explore the larger-- and also self-reflexive-- issue of whether it is possible to "document" a community. The emotional intention is to compel viewers to move beyond voyeurism into empathy, so that by the end of the film they will feel authentically connected to people with whom they assume they have nothing in common..."
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| Google Maps. |
What is Appalachia? "Appalachia is a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to Northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia". After roaming around Appalachia on Google Maps, it looked like a very small remote town, obviously the dirt tracks that lead up into the mountains are not covered, but you can still make out the shacks and huts that go up the mountain and into the wild, or the higher 'holler dwellers'. It is home to the hillbillies, to the more common stereotyped.
'True Meaning of Pictures' is a very interesting Documentary to watch, a way of life which I, personally, have never seen before. The people of the Appalachia, live a remote life style, away from most civilisation. They live in a completely different society, it's almost a separate world, and yet it is so close to so many of the main states of America including the state of New York.
"A photograph that you can remember is just as important as one you can see" [quote from film]
Many people speak in the documentary about the effect that Adams' photographs have on them and how you remember the faces that stare straight back at you out of the photograph, I agree. The numerous faces that stare straight back into the camera have quite a haunting look to them. In most of the photographs they do not smile, they simple glare. I understand that these are documentary portraits, and if the subject did have a large grin then you would be more likely to view the photograph as set-up or staged, there is nothing worse than subject that pose. Perhaps, in this case, it would have been better if Shelby Lee Adams subject didn't have such a penetrating gawk at the viewer. It's understood that Adams wanted to photograph the Appalachian people as they were, but these photographs to not flatter them in any way.
"The Appalachian people who I photograph, the Holler Dwellers as we say here, accept themselves for who they are and what they are. And they accept me, because I accept them. It's that simple."
If these 'Holler Dwellers' accept who they are, and what they are, as Adams mentions in the introduction to his film, then what's so wrong with photographing them as they are. Many of the Appalachians photographed are actually very pleased with them, they like Adams photographs of themselves. It's mentioned that the woman in the photograph above thinks that that specific photograph is one of her favourites of herself. If this is the case, what is all the controversy surrounding these photographs?
It's mentioned in the film that one of the young girls photographed hated her photograph, but she was speaking about the photograph around 15 years after it was actually taken. She had made a name for herself, now living in a large city, she'd escaped from Appalachia and moved away, she didn't want to see photographs of her past everywhere she looked, in galleries etc, but it was too late, everyone knew who she was. Exploitation?
"When the question come up, Why do I want to photograph in such an environment? It's a very difficult question for me to answer. My psyche is attracted to people who are suffering and are in pain. I identify with that. It's part of the human condition." [Adams speaking in film]
This quote which I took from the opening scene from the film, I feel, really pulls you into the film and outlines how the entire film will conduct the rest of the film, or at least effect your thought of process throughout the rest of the film. "My psyche is attracted to people who are suffering" is personally very difficult for me to process. It's understandable that Adams wants to show theses people as they are and how they are suffering, but for what? Normally, with photographs that show people suffering it's to change, are pull people's attention to this suffering and maybe do something about or change peoples way of thinking about it, for example war photographs normally show the suffering but to change people's opinion on war etc.
"Trying to show what is really here.."
There is the issue, when it comes to photographing the people of Appalachia, what are people expecting? There are several 'stereotypes' surrounding the Appalachians, as Dwight Billings, Sociologist, University of Kentucky mentions in the film, much like all other cultures of humans, if people are unaware or do not know much about a specific group of people, they tend to stereotype them. Unfortunately for the people of Appalachians, their stereotypes have been for the worst. Many films and TV Series' have portrayed the lifestyle of the Appalachians as quite disgusting, and always have the idea of inbreds surrounding them, especially in some Hollywood movies, including 'Wrong Turn' (2005), which is based Woods of West Virginia. Many people have no concept of how the Appalachians live, and from so, give it a stereotype, from no understanding. Adams portraits tell stories, stories that are only determined by the reader, and more often than not, they imagine 100 years of stereotypes, which will effect the way people view these photographs.
"Stop making judgements and experience life.."
The Appalachians have lived their way for generations and generations, and have hardly changed in 100 years. They have kept their traditions alive for decades, and even though they have modernised themselves slightly, they still keep to their roots.
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