Description: Appalachian Legacy Shelby Lee AdamsSIGNED Shelby Lee Adams University Press of Mississippi. 1998. First edition. Softcover. French folds. Good plus. Light edgewear. Covers have a few scratches. Ex Library copy with very few markings. Library stamp to top fore edge. Withdrawn stamp to half title page. SIGNED in my presence by Shelby Lee Adams at the International Center for Photography. Internally still quite nice. Clean and crisp photographs. Tanning to page edges. 128 pages. The eighty photographs collected in this book were taken over the course of a quarter-century. They are Adams's study of people who give themselves honestly and openly before his camera. He focuses here on nine families that have been his recurring subjects during these years. His words that accompany the images reveal his long-term association with them and with their histories. Appalachian Legacy reflects the identity of Adams and his photography while capturing the indelible heritage of old Appalachia. It shows as well the new Appalachia absorbed by the American mainstream of television, trailer parks, and strip malls. A wonderful book. Scarce. Library Journal Adams brings a respectful but always honest eye to his photographs of the people and places of Appalachia. At a quick glance, this work might seem essentially a graphic depiction of poverty, neglect, and need. But a careful look, which Adams's book deserves, reveals a world of families and history and a timeless merging of people and place. Appalachia has long been synonymous with the rural struggle that results from too little income and too little education, but here it emerges as a place of frail dignity and enduring natural rhythm. Adams must be praised for his skills in handling photography: his black-and-white images are exquisitely composed, finely detailed, full of deep tone and texture, and memorable to viewers. In addition, his fine essay, which opens the book, explains in a humble way how he achieved his visual mastery of Appalachian subjects. Highly recommended.--David Bryant, New Canaan P.L., CT Kirkus Reviews A further documentary record of the lives of nine families in Appalachia by the creator of Appalachian Portraits (1993). Like that earlier volume, this new collection of photographs by Adams is frank, unsentimental, but often affectionate. And like Walker Evans, who took some notable photographs in the rural South, Adams is a master at using available light to saturate an image—these black-and-white photographs of families gathered on the porches or in the crowded rooms of their hardscrabble, venerable homes show a remarkable crispness of detail. While the effects of longstanding poverty and malnutrition, along with the ravages of disease and alcoholism, are all evident here, so too are a resilience and grace. Adams' lengthy notes on the families he portrays also stress his conviction that for far too long, poor rural southerners have been the victims of one-dimensional depictions. An unusual record, in prose and photographs, of an old and ebbing way of life by a disciplined, gifted photographer.
Price: 399.99 USD
Location: Island Park, New York
End Time: 2025-01-28T16:27:54.000Z
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Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Seller
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Binding: Softcover/Wraps
Subject: Art & Photography
Topic: Photography: Monographs
Special Attributes: 1st Edition, Illustrated, Signed
Origin: American
Printing Year: 1998
3rd Level Category: Monographs
Country of Manufacture: United States
