Mode of Program Participation
Performances and Arts
Participation Type
Performance
Presentation #1 Title
Come and Stay a Lifetime: The Kentucky Photographs of William Gedney
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
When President Johnson declared an unconditional war on poverty in 1964, Appalachia found itself inundated with photographers, filmmakers, and news outlets eager to tell the story of extreme hardship. Perhaps the greatest unintended consequence of this wave of reportage was that, for many, it became the visual definition of Appalachia and her people. William Gedney arrived in eastern Kentucky in 1964 and the work he produced in two visits – 1964 and 1972 – are the most thoroughly original of his career. What is unique about Gedney’s photographs (“pitchers” as he insisted on calling them), is that unlike most of the images coming out of eastern Kentucky at the time, poverty wasn’t his subject, yet he refused to look away from it. His work gives shape to the elements of raw beauty and form, of family and place, and the thread of humanity that connects us all. Gedney’s Kentucky photographs counter what most saw – and continue to see – in Appalachia. A careful analysis of Gedney’s Kentucky photographs, particularly those he selected for a book that was never published, will contribute to our larger discussion of Appalachian activism and identity.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Roger May is a photographer and writer whose work is based in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. May directs the Looking at Appalachia project and photographs and lectures on commission.
Come and Stay a Lifetime: The Kentucky Photographs of William Gedney
When President Johnson declared an unconditional war on poverty in 1964, Appalachia found itself inundated with photographers, filmmakers, and news outlets eager to tell the story of extreme hardship. Perhaps the greatest unintended consequence of this wave of reportage was that, for many, it became the visual definition of Appalachia and her people. William Gedney arrived in eastern Kentucky in 1964 and the work he produced in two visits – 1964 and 1972 – are the most thoroughly original of his career. What is unique about Gedney’s photographs (“pitchers” as he insisted on calling them), is that unlike most of the images coming out of eastern Kentucky at the time, poverty wasn’t his subject, yet he refused to look away from it. His work gives shape to the elements of raw beauty and form, of family and place, and the thread of humanity that connects us all. Gedney’s Kentucky photographs counter what most saw – and continue to see – in Appalachia. A careful analysis of Gedney’s Kentucky photographs, particularly those he selected for a book that was never published, will contribute to our larger discussion of Appalachian activism and identity.
