Shelby Lee Adams

Adams in 2010

Shelby Lee Adams (born October 24, 1950)^[1] is an American environmental portrait photographer and artist best known for his images of Appalachian family life.

Life and career

Adams has photographed Appalachian families since the mid-1970s.^[2] He had first encountered the poor families of the Appalachian mountains as a child, travelling around the area with his uncle, who was a doctor.^[3] His work has been published in three monographs: Appalachian Portraits (1993), Appalachian Legacy (1998), and Appalachian Lives (2003).

The True Meaning of Pictures

Adams was the subject of a documentary film by Jennifer Baichwal in 2002 - The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams's Appalachia. This was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, and at the Sundance Festival in 2003.^[4][5] The film critiques and defends Adams' method in photographing Appalachian people for his previously published books.

Awards

• 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship

Books by Adams

• Appalachian Portraits. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993. ISBN 0-87805-646-7; ISBN 0-87805-667-X.
• Appalachian Legacy: Photographs. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998. ISBN 1-57806-048-6; ISBN 1-57806-049-4.
• Appalachian Lives. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003. ISBN 1-57806-540-2.
• Salt and Truth. Richmond, Va.: Candela, 2011. ISBN 0-9845739-1-7.

Permanent collections

• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago^[6]
• Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago^[7]
• International Center of Photography, New York^[8]
• Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne^[9]
• Museum of Modern Art, New York^[8]
• Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts^[8][10]
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa^[7]
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art^[11]
• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC^[8][12]
• Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam^[7]
• Time Life Collection, Rockefeller Center, New York
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London^[13]
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York^[8]

References

1. Mark, Rebecca & Vaughan, Robert (2004) The South, Greenwood Press, ISBN 978-0-313-32734-6, p. 60-61
2. Foerstner, Abigail (1994) "Appalachia observed: Shelby Lee Adams exhibit features portraits out of a living past", Chicago Tribune, September 25, 1994, p. 18
3. "Vanishing Tribe", Mother Jones, Sept-Oct 1991, p. 52-55, retrieved 2010-10-18
4. Goddard, Peter (2002) "Photographer spies on the human drama: Shelby Lee Adams's Appalachian photographs capture undercurrent of pain", Toronto Star, August 31, 2002, p. H12.
5. Harvey, Dennis (2003) "The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia", Variety, February 2, 3003, retrieved 2010-10-18
6. "The Home Funeral, 1990", catalogue entry, Art Institute of Chicago. Accessed 3 August 2011.
7. "Shelby Lee Adams", Museum of Contemporary Photography. Accessed 3 August 2011.
8. Shelby Lee Adams, International Center of Photography. Accessed 3 August 2011.
9. "The collection", Musée de l'Élysée. Accessed 3 August 2011.
10. Catalogue search for "Shelby Lee Adams", Harvard Art Museums. Accessed 3 August 2011.
11. "Works by Shelby Lee Adams", San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Accessed 3 August 2011.
12. Results of a search of the collection, 3 August 2011.
13. "Berthie Napier with Pipe and John", catalogue entry, Victoria and Albert Museum. Accessed 3 August 2011.

External links

• Adams's website
• The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia at the Internet Movie Database 2002.