Response #2 "The true meaning of pictures"

Response to “The true meaning of pictures”

          In response to “The true meaning of pictures” Mario Mattei talks about how pictures can give off many different meanings according to the way you use them and classify them. Shelby Lee Adams set out on a pursuit to document the Appalachian lives. As I was reading the article I noticed that all of the pictures seemed to be poverty related. This could surely give off a negative example to some people and also offend people that may come from the surrounding areas.

          When stumbling upon this article I very quickly became interested considering I am from the Appalachian mountains. Some of the photos I saw can be disturbing to people that do not understand the lives of the people who were pictured in the photos. When dealing with photos that come from the hollers of the Appalachians most photographers give little reasoning behind the pictures and details, this leads people often in the wrong direction.

          Coming from Harlan Kentucky, I realize in most hollers there are people who are exactly like the people in the pictures that some people may call “Hillbillies” whose poverty may be their own fault. I come from the city of Harlan which is in the mountains but not in the hollers, most people believe that people from Harlan are the same as the people that live in the hollers which is not true at all. The photos that Adams displays can give off a bad stereotype for other surrounding areas. I do feel like the people in the photos should be able to voice their own images.

          Understanding that Adams was also from the Appalachians I believe he was trying to explain and show the world what has been poorly stereotyped when dealing with the people in the hollers. Shelby spent time with the people he photographed and made time to find out who they were and he got to know them on a personal level. By Adams making the effort to get to know them shows me that he had no intentions of I guess you could say advertising the people in a negative way.

          In conclusion I feel that was Adams did was very respectful and greatly appreciated by people that live in the Appalachian Mountains. When taking pictures of people I feel that you should give a great deal of background with the images, so that people don’t get the wrong example and twist things up for the worse. Unless of course the pictures are meant to give off a negative example do the circumstances. I have a lot of respect for Shelby Lee Adams.