Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 5.07 Stereotypes
Session Abstract or Summary
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared unconditional war on poverty in the United States and nowhere was this war more photographed than Appalachia. A quick Google image search of “war on poverty” will yield several photographs of President Johnson on the porch of the Fletcher family home in Inez, Kentucky.
Many of the War on Poverty photographs, whether intentional or not, became a visual definition of Appalachia. These images have often drawn from the poorest areas and people to gain support for the intended cause, but unjustly came to represent the entirety of the region while simultaneously perpetuating stereotypes.
In an attempt to explore the diversity of Appalachia and establish a visual counter point, this project looks at Appalachia fifty years after the declaration of the War on Poverty. Drawing from a diverse population of photographers within the region, this new crowdsourced image archive will serve as a reference that is defined by its people as opposed to political legislation.
The project will begin a traveling print exhibition in 2015 of work produced to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the War on Poverty and will continue as a crowdsourced image archive taking submissions and publishing work.
Presentation #1 Title
The Looking at Appalachia Project | 50 Years After the War on Poverty
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared unconditional war on poverty in the United States and nowhere was this war more photographed than Appalachia. A quick Google image search of “war on poverty” will yield several photographs of President Johnson on the porch of the Fletcher family home in Inez, Kentucky. Many of the War on Poverty photographs, whether intentional or not, became a visual definition of Appalachia. These images have often drawn from the poorest areas and people to gain support for the intended cause, but unjustly came to represent the entirety of the region while simultaneously perpetuating stereotypes. In an attempt to explore the diversity of Appalachia and establish a visual counter point, this project looks at Appalachia fifty years after the declaration of the War on Poverty. Drawing from a diverse population of photographers within the region, this new crowdsourced image archive will serve as a reference that is defined by its people as opposed to political legislation. The project will begin a traveling print exhibition in 2015 of work produced to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the War on Poverty and will continue as a crowdsourced image archive taking submissions and publishing work.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Roger May is an Appalachian American photographer currently living in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was born in the Tug River Valley, located on the West Virginia and Kentucky state line. May speaks about his work, about issues of Appalachian representation, and photographs on commission.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Kate Fowler is a documentary photographer and filmmaker from Richmond, Virginia. Much of her work is based in West Virginia and is related to the environment and its effect on the individual. She's a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in photo/film, where so co-directed the school student art gallery and interned at LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph. Her photographs and writing have been published on Burn Magazine, FeatureShoot and the Oxford American. Kate has recently accepted a job with Spazio Labo'/Photo Workshops New York and is relocating to Brooklyn for the position.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Pat Jarrett is a photographer and editor working with the Virginia Folklife Program at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. His work has also been published by the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian in London, National Public Radio and The Christian Science Monitor among others.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an award-winning documentary storyteller, visual journalist and one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Her most recent project, Hollow, communicates the issues of rural America through the eyes, voices and ideas of Southern West Virginians. Sheldon earned a B.S. from West Virginia University in Journalism and a M.F.A. in Visual and Media Arts from Emerson College. She was born in Abingdon, Virginia but grew up in Logan County and the Kanawha Valley.
The Looking at Appalachia Project | 50 Years After the War on Poverty
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared unconditional war on poverty in the United States and nowhere was this war more photographed than Appalachia. A quick Google image search of “war on poverty” will yield several photographs of President Johnson on the porch of the Fletcher family home in Inez, Kentucky. Many of the War on Poverty photographs, whether intentional or not, became a visual definition of Appalachia. These images have often drawn from the poorest areas and people to gain support for the intended cause, but unjustly came to represent the entirety of the region while simultaneously perpetuating stereotypes. In an attempt to explore the diversity of Appalachia and establish a visual counter point, this project looks at Appalachia fifty years after the declaration of the War on Poverty. Drawing from a diverse population of photographers within the region, this new crowdsourced image archive will serve as a reference that is defined by its people as opposed to political legislation. The project will begin a traveling print exhibition in 2015 of work produced to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the War on Poverty and will continue as a crowdsourced image archive taking submissions and publishing work.
