Shelby Lee Adams
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.
Shelby Lee Adams | |
|---|---|
 Adams in 2010 | |
| Born | October 24, 1950 |
| Alma mater | Cleveland Institute of Art, Massachusetts College of Art and Design |
| Known for | Photography |
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.
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[7]
- Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago[8]
- International Center of Photography, New York City[9]
- Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne[10]
- Museum of Modern Art, New York[9]
- Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts[9][11]
- National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa[8]
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art[12]
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC[9][13]
- Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam[8]
- Time Life Collection, Rockefeller Center, New York
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London[14]
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York[9]
- Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro[15]
References
- Mark, Rebecca & Vaughan, Robert (2004) The South, Greenwood Press, ISBN 978-0-313-32734-6, p. 60-61
- Foerstner, Abigail (1994) "Appalachia observed: Shelby Lee Adams exhibit features portraits out of a living past", Chicago Tribune, September 25, 1994, p. 18
- "Vanishing Tribe", Mother Jones, September–October 1991, p. 52-55, retrieved 2010-10-18
- 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.
- Harvey, Dennis (2003) "The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia", Variety, February 2, 3003, retrieved 2010-10-18
- "Shelby Lee Adams". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
- "The Home Funeral, 1990", catalogue entry, Art Institute of Chicago. Accessed 3 August 2011.
- "Shelby Lee Adams", Museum of Contemporary Photography. Accessed 3 August 2011.
- Shelby Lee Adams Archived 2012-03-28 at the Wayback Machine, International Center of Photography. Accessed 3 August 2011.
- "The collection", Musée de l'Élysée. Accessed 3 August 2011.
- Catalogue search for "Shelby Lee Adams" Archived 2012-03-23 at the Wayback Machine, Harvard Art Museums. Accessed 3 August 2011.
- "Works by Shelby Lee Adams", San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Accessed 3 August 2011.
- Results of a search of the collection, 3 August 2011.
- "Berthie Napier with Pipe and John", catalogue entry, Victoria and Albert Museum. Accessed 3 August 2011.
- "Photographer Shelby Lee Adams to create MTSU archive of Appalachian images". DNJ. 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2019-08-24.