Every summer, for over 40 years, Shelby Lee Adams travelled to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky to take photographs.
Now in his 70s, Adams returned to his archive of unpublished images taken between 1974 and 2010. His goal was to print any photos that may have been overlooked before, concerned that if he did not print them in his lifetime, the photographs would never see the light of day.
Nearly 90 of these unpublished photographs are included in this new publication, composing a delicate portrait of the communities in his homeland.
Adams’ intention when he began photographing was to “portray what I knew”.
Those summer trips allowed him to relive his childhood in these mountains: at first he photographed his grandparents, uncles, neighbours and friends. When he brought back the photographs to distribute to those whose portraits he had taken, he would ask them to introduce him to other people, and so on, eventually photographing three, four or sometimes even five generations of the same families.
Often, the author would photograph the same subject several times, sometimes a couple of years apart, sometimes a decade.
From the shots, in addition to the often impassive faces of the subjects, the details of their daily lives emerge, telling of a world of simplicity verging on poverty, harsh but fascinating at the same time.
Signed copies
