What do you think?
Rate this book
Appalachian Legacy 1st Edition
The eighty photographs collected in this book were taken over the course of a quarter-century. They are Adams's study of people who give themselves honestly and openly before his camera. He focuses here on nine families that have been his recurring subjects during these years. His words that accompany the images reveal his long-term association with them and with their histories. Appalachian Legacy reflects the identity of Adams and his photography while capturing the indelible heritage of old Appalachia. It shows as well the new Appalachia absorbed by the American mainstream of television, trailer parks, and strip malls.
- GenresPhotographyNonfictionArt
Hardcover
First published July 1, 1998
91 people want to read
About the author
Shelby Lee Adams
11 books14 followersShelby Lee Adams was born in 1950 in the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky. He now lives there as well as in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. Appalachia is not only Adams’s birthplace, but the subject of his photographs as well. His images, focusing on the lives of the people of Appalachia, have been shown in one-person exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art; the International Center of Photography, New York; Light Work, Syracuse, New York; and the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York. His work is also included in the collections of many major museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, among others.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 20, 2009
I have read some searing accusations regarding Adams' "stereotypical" representation of Appalachia. Whether you want to believe it or not, these people do exist. We should stop trying to deny their existance as if it were something shameful. Adams is not out to stereotype. He's out to show and tell the truth. This is a beautifully done portrait. And the photos speak for themselves.
May 31, 2025
I loved this book of photography not just for the images but for the context that Adams provides. Raised partially in Eastern Kentucky, where these photographs were taken, he has a much deeper understanding of the area, and the people, than a full outsider would; more to the point, it's clear that he's neither trying to glamourise this rural, isolated, poor kind of existence nor trying to shock the viewer.
Adams talks at one point about criticisms of his work—namely, that it's exploitative. But I guess I wonder: what are the other options? They're either to sanitise the pictures (to focus primarily on happy, clean, pretty, etc.) or to not take/share the pictures at all. And neither of those sounds like a terribly good option. Better to take the pictures, and contextualise them, and neither romanticise nor other-ise.
My favourite pictures tend to be portraits of women, which is often the case anyway. There are so many stories there, in their faces—stories that aren't often seen or heard.
Adams talks at one point about criticisms of his work—namely, that it's exploitative. But I guess I wonder: what are the other options? They're either to sanitise the pictures (to focus primarily on happy, clean, pretty, etc.) or to not take/share the pictures at all. And neither of those sounds like a terribly good option. Better to take the pictures, and contextualise them, and neither romanticise nor other-ise.
My favourite pictures tend to be portraits of women, which is often the case anyway. There are so many stories there, in their faces—stories that aren't often seen or heard.
February 18, 2024
I loved the little written descriptions of the families Adams photographed—really pulls the book together. Some really great faces in this book too.
August 7, 2019
This is a powerful book of black and white photographs taken over a long time in rural Appalachian Kentucky. A book like this, and its images, serves as a test of the mindset of the reader of the book, as it presents rural folk, most of whom are very poor, live difficult lives, and who are not photographed in flattering ways (not least because they tend to be a plain to unattractive lot), in a very unsympathetic fashion that nonetheless was done with the full consent of the people themselves. As is generally the case here, the author presents this book while also presenting bona fides as to how it was that he was able to gain the trust of these notoriously suspicious people through his own background in the area, a background that includes families of a complex religious past and a grandfather who had as his favorite magazine the Plain Truth during the author's youth, something that gave me a bit of a smile to read it. Admittedly, I didn't feel it necessary to smile during most of the photos of this book, as they reminded me of photos of relatives or former neighbors from my youth, and given that, I had little reason to smile.
This particular book of a bit more than 100 pages is made up of various sections of material that show the author's work on photographing people in rural Eastern Kentucky over the course of decades, returning to the same people year after year and remarking on the course of their lives as well as births and deaths. The author begins with an introduction that discusses his own history, how he moved from an angry atheistic young adult to a more mature and more calm and more faithful adult who had been positively influenced by the faith and practices of those he photographed. The first part of the book looks at the effects of time on a group of people, photographed individually and by family, that show how a wary but attractive child can turn into a woman with an immensely complicated family history whose early experience with an abusive marriage soured her on the institution altogether, or a group of elderly relatives with a taste for Sunday finery. The second part of the book then looks at the passing of generations with photos of children growing up in the rural environment, after which the book closes with acknowledgments.
It must be emphasized that this book is not intended to be a flattering and sentimental portrayal of the lives of its subjects. Moreover, it is evident that the subjects themselves do not appear to want to be photographed in a flattering or sympathetic light. These are generally hard people with hard lives in a hardscrabble land. Admittedly, the scenes the author portrays are not ones that are entirely alien to me, and as a plain person from plain stock myself, I don't think that the portrayal is either unjust or unkind. In looking at the photos and reading the accompanying essays, it is clear that the subjects of this book neither want nor deserve pity. They live the lives they have as best as they can and appear wary, a bit suspicious, and not really concerned about what the outside world thinks about them and more interested in simply being who they are and being respected on those terms. The author's focus on the religious message and idiosyncratic signage of the area, and the way that wary children become wary adults, is something that ought to give many readers a great deal of pause.
This particular book of a bit more than 100 pages is made up of various sections of material that show the author's work on photographing people in rural Eastern Kentucky over the course of decades, returning to the same people year after year and remarking on the course of their lives as well as births and deaths. The author begins with an introduction that discusses his own history, how he moved from an angry atheistic young adult to a more mature and more calm and more faithful adult who had been positively influenced by the faith and practices of those he photographed. The first part of the book looks at the effects of time on a group of people, photographed individually and by family, that show how a wary but attractive child can turn into a woman with an immensely complicated family history whose early experience with an abusive marriage soured her on the institution altogether, or a group of elderly relatives with a taste for Sunday finery. The second part of the book then looks at the passing of generations with photos of children growing up in the rural environment, after which the book closes with acknowledgments.
It must be emphasized that this book is not intended to be a flattering and sentimental portrayal of the lives of its subjects. Moreover, it is evident that the subjects themselves do not appear to want to be photographed in a flattering or sympathetic light. These are generally hard people with hard lives in a hardscrabble land. Admittedly, the scenes the author portrays are not ones that are entirely alien to me, and as a plain person from plain stock myself, I don't think that the portrayal is either unjust or unkind. In looking at the photos and reading the accompanying essays, it is clear that the subjects of this book neither want nor deserve pity. They live the lives they have as best as they can and appear wary, a bit suspicious, and not really concerned about what the outside world thinks about them and more interested in simply being who they are and being respected on those terms. The author's focus on the religious message and idiosyncratic signage of the area, and the way that wary children become wary adults, is something that ought to give many readers a great deal of pause.
July 22, 2020
Shelby is amazing.
June 1, 2021
Very interesting photographs and stories of the people the photographer met in Eastern Kentucky.
February 24, 2023
Mesmerising.
February 21, 2008
I first read this book at Morehead State University. Shelby Lee Adams is an awesome photographer. In this book he includes people who live in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and tells stories about their lives. His photos are undeniably interesting, but he is often accused of portraying Appalachians in a very stereotypical way. I think they are fascinating!
August 3, 2015
This is the second book in the series, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the history behind the photography. I remember when visiting family many years ago, hearing some of the same stories. For anyone interested in this "forgotten" culture, or for anyone who might have some personal knowledge of Appalachia, this is a must read.
December 19, 2015
Appalachian Legacy: Photographs by Shelby Lee Adams (University Press of Mississippi 1998) (975) is the third of Adams' great works of photographic portraits of Kentucky hill folk. My rating: 10/10, finished 2008.
June 16, 2016
Interesting photographs of the area where Shelby Lee grew up. He is a controversial figure, one can understnad that looking at these photos of the locals. The issue is that for some he is exploiting these tragic people.
January 23, 2011
quite the book - things I've seen ....
September 1, 2012
Beautiful black/white photos of Appalachia with sone interesting stories. Photographer lives in Massachusetts.
March 21, 2013
Photography as a humanistic statement.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews