I Am From Eastern Kentucky

I never wanted to be an “Appalachian” photographer when I was young. I am from here. Eastern Kentucky. I grew up thinking all of the things that people judge us for are normal. 

Some people that I went to photojournalism school with loved Appalachian exploitation photography. It’s just so common. It is part of what I refer to as the “colonizer photography mindset.’ What I mean by that is that a lot of beautiful and celebrated work came from accomplished photographers going to an impoverished place. They bring these photos back to “civilized” society for people of European descent to gawk at. 

In the current social and political climate many people push for people from a specific culture to be the ones documenting and telling their own stories. Central Appalachia seems to be the last place that it is socially acceptable to exploit poor people for the sake of art. I never wanted to be part of that. 

To be fair I have also seen some photographers assimilate and make great work while contributing to the community as well. Not wanting to participate in extractive photojournalism is part of why I developed my style. I started working on a conceptual photo essay about wanting to escape from technology and the rat race. It was called “Finding Oasis.” 

I made photos in town that were dark and foreboding to express the stress of modern society. In the forest and on farms I made these lovely magical photos to express the life I yearned for. After college I ended up teaching at Appalachian Media Institute which is part of Appalshop. I got deep into playing folk music and only worked with cameras professionally for a while. When I came back to photography as art I decided that I wanted to make work about the region I am from. I started photographing on color film. 

When I moved back to the hills from Lexington, Ky. I started photographing Eastern Kentucky on black and white film. Familiar Paths was born. I worked on this project for 3 or 4 years. I photographed people I already knew and people that I met along the way. I was photographing my own life and an idea still. 

Familiar Paths is about the dreamscape of Appalachia that exists in our minds when we are away. It is both a love letter to the region and a poem written for people who had to leave their home to pursue a career. I released 5 limited volume zines in the series. I have simultaneously been photographing down around Cumberland Gap with color film. Both of these sets will be included in my upcoming book. 

I believe that Constitute Publishing out of Washington state is going to release a book of the work that I have made about Appalachia. This will include photos from my time at local newspapers and possibly all the way back to the first black and white film shots I made in high school. 

My most recent work is a project that I call “LESIONS.” For years my health has been in decline. Going up steps became harder and harder over the years among other things that I now know as symptoms. In February of 2023 I developed double vision. I didn’t know what was up. The ER I went to acted like I might have had a mini stroke and sent me home with a reference to an ophthalmologist. They tried to figure out what was wrong with me. My ophthalmologist even ordered an MRI. I didn’t make it to the MRI appointment. 

I lost strength in the entire left side of my body. I couldn’t hold my left hand over my head. This time when I went to the ER I finally got the MRI and they found lesions on my brain. It was at this point that I decided to start documenting my health journey. It was a wild and traumatic ride. I didn’t think I was going to live to see 2024 until I finally got my first dose of a medicine that worked for me right before Christmas in 2023. The reason they thought I probably had a mini stroke early on is because I weighed over 400 lbs. If I was going to get my health under control I also wanted to get my weight down. 

“LESIONS” is about my journey with both weight loss and multiple sclerosis. It is about me getting my life back. I keep thinking that I am doing fine and wonder why I am still posting self portraits. Then something new happens with my health journey. With multiple sclerosis you never know what is going to happen. Sometimes I feel like there is something crawling through my nerves or a great pain will overtake my legs. 

On paper I look like I am doing so much better and I am but this disease doesn’t care how much better you are doing. It keeps reminding you it’s there. This work isn’t about sympathy, much like my Appalachian work it is for other people who share my experience to feel seen and heard. As a secondary goal it is about raising understanding of what it is like to suffer through a life with multiple sclerosis similar to the Appalachia work is about what it is really like for me living here. Much like my early work I use images to express feelings. 

The dark photos may express anxiety, physical pain, dread, grief, or any of the myriad of feelings one experiences with this disease. I also try to include photos that express joy and show progress. I try to express all the feelings and show all the stages of experience that I can. When I was talking to a fellow photographer I told her, “Let’s hope it’s all progress and sunsets from here on out.” As I progress I am trying to get back into my work of photographing outside of my own daily life. The tentative name for my new project that I am shooting on black and white film is, “Stomping Grounds.” I think it’s important to show the good and the bad and not erase anything. It is all real and it all deserves to be preserved.

Written by Jared Hamilton

Photograph by Jared Hamilton