Evocative Photos of the Appalachian Region

By Alison Nastasi

June 8, 2014

Taking small press journal Fiddleblack’s antipastoral aesthetic into the woodland is Charles Dodd White’s A Shelter of Others, which celebrates its publication this week. Inspired by the story’s evocative Appalachian setting, where a family rift haunts the rural and rugged landscape, we became drawn to the photographs of Appalachian native Aaron Blum. His series Born and Raised, which we first learned about on Juxtapoz, examines fictionalized accounts of life in the hills, combined with his own narrative, staging an alternative vision of the region. The photos are remarkably different from the famed, soil-smudged portraits of Shelby Lee Adams, bathed in golden light, though still somber and otherworldly — an ambience seemingly woven into the fabric of the earth.

Photo credit: Aaron Blum