56

Shelby Lee Adams

American, b. 1950

Shelby Lee Adams
(American, b. 1950)

"Lee Hall, Retired Coal Miner, Camp Branch, Kentucky" 1983

gelatin silver print
signed and numbered "5/25" lower right, titled lower left.
Matted.
14" x 11", matted 20" x 16"

Provenance: Bassetti Fine Art Photographs, New Orleans, Louisiana; Collection of Laura Grannen, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Notes: "My photography of this culture - my culture - has developed over the years from encounters to interconnection and has grown into long-term, loving relationships. I love the mountain people because of (and often in spite of) the influences of some of my own kin."

Shelby Lee Adams, 2011
Salt & Truth


A native of Appalachia, Adams was born in Kentucky and raised in the holler of Jackson's Fork, where his family had lived for generations. His father had a position with a natural gas company and the family was a part of the region's newly emerging middle class. Adams traveled across the country with his family, spending half the year in Kentucky and half the year in various cities. By the time he attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, he was acutely aware of the negative, one-dimensional stereotype of Appalachia and its people that was then so prevalent. This stereotype emphasized the (undeniable) poverty of the region to the detriment of virtually any other cultural aspects. In response, Adams began photographing his family and friends; he would take preliminary polaroids which he gave his subjects to examine, thus allowing for a level of collaboration rarely evident in such documentary images. Adams' subjects, despite their seemingly hard-scrabble lives, gaze directly at the viewer with pride and dignity, resulting in haunting black and white images.

gelatin silver print
signed and numbered "5/25" lower right, titled lower left.
Matted.
14" x 11", matted 20" x 16"

  • Provenance: Bassetti Fine Art Photographs, New Orleans, Louisiana; Collection of Laura Grannen, New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • Notes: "My photography of this culture - my culture - has developed over the years from encounters to interconnection and has grown into long-term, loving relationships. I love the mountain people because of (and often in spite of) the influences of some of my own kin."

    Shelby Lee Adams, 2011
    Salt & Truth


    A native of Appalachia, Adams was born in Kentucky and raised in the holler of Jackson's Fork, where his family had lived for generations. His father had a position with a natural gas company and the family was a part of the region's newly emerging middle class. Adams traveled across the country with his family, spending half the year in Kentucky and half the year in various cities. By the time he attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, he was acutely aware of the negative, one-dimensional stereotype of Appalachia and its people that was then so prevalent. This stereotype emphasized the (undeniable) poverty of the region to the detriment of virtually any other cultural aspects. In response, Adams began photographing his family and friends; he would take preliminary polaroids which he gave his subjects to examine, thus allowing for a level of collaboration rarely evident in such documentary images. Adams' subjects, despite their seemingly hard-scrabble lives, gaze directly at the viewer with pride and dignity, resulting in haunting black and white images.
  • Condition: **No signs of past restorations. Some rippling of the paper support along right edge. Some surface imperfections in negative in upper center.

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November 18, 2021 10:00 AM CST
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