“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”---Dorothea Lange

Well, here I go again. I have said it before: a person can talk day and night on something they know nothing about, but ask that person to talk about something that they do know and they will run out of talk in about 15 minutes. That and I always say that experts are just people far from home. If the people that you grew up around heard you advertising as being an expert, they would just die laughing. Here I am going on.

Now, on May 4, 2022 I did two posts here about art and photography in Appalachia. They are titled "Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting---Parts One and Two.” They were not particularly well written or profound. My point in writing those posts was to talk about painting and photography, and about some painters and photographers as people who not only document or record life as it changes, but also as people who we informally appoint to tell us and others more about ourselves and our experiences. They become our representatives to a larger world.

Every time you turn on the radio or the tv you hear someone talking from a particular place and a particular viewpoint that is shaped by their experiences and who they’re representing. I’ll wager you that in a day of listening to the mainstream tv or radio you won’t hear any working-class people telling our stories the way we tell them or would like them to be told. It’s not the fault of the media; their sponsors and their mindset don’t allow for us to be much more than consumers or victims or rough people. We know that we’re more and better than that, but sorting that out is hard if we don’t have the means to do that.

That’s why the painters, photographers, singers and bands, poets and writers, carvers and whittlers, cooks, storytellers, six-time-mommas who still tell bedtime stories, and so many other creative people who come from the working-class are so important. If you can find something of yourself in their work you might be on the way to sorting out your life essentials---where you came from, where you want to go, how you want to get there, and who is coming along with you. This helps people break out of their bad sides and start getting along with others, and who knows where that will stop once it takes off?

If you know where you have been and you get a vision of where you want to go, you’re more likely than not to start loving the people around you. Most of us want for others what we want for ourselves most of the time and you can’t care for yourself without caring for others. Life doesn’t work that way. You’re more likely to put down that bottle or that joint or the meth because, well, at some point it’s either that or it’s your future and it's either that or the people who care for you.

I tried to make the point in my May 4 post that I think that Kristen Kennedy, the woman who does the photography at Virginia Lee Photography in southwestern Virginia, is one of those people who helps us sort ourselves out. Her work gives me a good push on most days because I can see myself or people who I come from in her work. You can catch up with Virginia Lee Photography on Facebook, and if you live in Central Appalachia, I hope that you will make an appointment with her and get some photography done.

But how is she documenting people, and what does her work have to say to us? Some things are subtle. You have to let them sink in over time. A photograph is usually something more than a picture. The person or place that you see when you look at a photograph is held there at a particular moment. Yesterday they were different, tomorrow they will be different. It’s good to ask yourself how they happened to get there and where they’re headed. Ask yourself those questions, too.

I’m going to focus here on Appalachia, big and diverse as it is, and certain rural areas. You can be Appalachian and be in Northeastern Pennsylvania or in parts of Alabama. You can live in a holler or a patch or in a city. You can use yellow, white, or blue cornmeal. Your family’s roots can be in any part of the world. My grandmother would say that labels are only good for cans of soup.

Once, not so long ago, we looked a lot like this:

We were mostly poor, and many of our people were undernourished. Our families lived in rural areas, coal patches and hollers, “across the tracks” in towns and cities, in segregated and “ethnic” neighborhoods. 

And many of our families lived in homes that looked like this:

And when we look at the Virginia Lee photography this is some of what we see:

Now, what changed? How is it that, with all of our troubles, many of us look healthier and happier today then we used to? Some of it is color photography. Some of it is that today people smile in the camera. Some of it is that people go to Virginia Lee Photography to have a happy occasion photographed. But it’s also true---and this is central for me---that between those old times and today lots of people stuck together, showed love to one another, and made positive change by protesting, going on strike, and fighting for better living conditions.

Freedom is a continuing struggle, but we have had victories. Most kids in the United States don’t go to work in the mines and factories now. We have mine safety laws. We have seen times in this country when we had majorities or near-majorities of people who believed in peace, civil rights, union rights, and policies that put people ahead of profits. Appalachia and many rural areas were key to those movements.

From the film "Harlan County, USA"

From the film "Harlan County, USA"

Please take another look at some of the work done by Kristen Kennedy with what you have read above in mind.

The sentimental person within me says that this love and joy did indeed fall from the skies. But another voice tells me to take a minute and reflect. Do you see an evolution here or cause-and-effect? Where do you see the evolution and the change? I see it in the means of doing photography itself and in the very bodies and faces in the photographs, but I also see it in the development of real human feelings. The protests and the movements for change have expressed something good in people, but they also helped those feelings to find expression. The proof that these movements succeeded to some extent is in the smiles that you see here and in the faith needed to have a child or graduate from school today. And Kristen Kennedy is there to capture that love and joy and represent us.

Sources:  The photographs here and other work done by Kristen Kennedy can be seen at the Virginia Lee website and on the Virginia Lee Facebook page. Some of the photographs above come from my family album. Most of the photographs here have ended up on my desktop over the years and come from sources that I can't trace. Mr. Bob Wilson and the Appalachian Americans, Scenic Harlan County, and Forgotten Coalfields of Appalachia Facebook pages are good sources. One of my best and favorite sources is the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections. If you are fortunate to find the work of Marat Moore anywhere, snap it up.