People and Animals

Lincoln, Maw & Shorty, '92



Chester with Hounds, '92


Children with Blind Horse, '08
Published in "Kid's Wear"-Summer '09 issue.



Sherman with Hog's Head, '92

"We enjoy having you here and having things done, we never had before. Ain’t no way we see it any other way, we see it only in a good way. If anything your pictures help, more than anything, you let the people have the books and they enjoy seeing thereselves in the books and what you write up. They always somebody that’s goin to be against you, in everything, don’t care what you do. Your work is original. It’s real life and it’s the way we live. People away from here, they got all they need in life, they got new homes, new car’s. They don’t know what it is to live a poor person’s life. People enjoys livin from day to day, makin it on their own, not out here crookin somebody or stealin something to make it; just makin it, surviving on their own. That’s the way Kentucky people are. We just enjoy doin it, because it’s everyday things. If I go out here today and make enough to survive to the next day, I’m tickled to death. Long, as I’ve got dinner on the table for my family. If I tell a man something, I tell the truth. I don’t lie."

Sherman Jacobs
October '07


Sherman, '08

Wade, '05

Paul with Rabbit, '06

Eric with Spike the Rooster, '99

Cody and Tank, '04



Peggy and Albert, '99




Gracie Serpent Handling, '86

The spirit is something you can't hardly explain. The feeling of the spirit of the Lord can't be explained without you having the spirit in your soul. It is a good feeling-it's a feeling too good to explain! Just like in heaven, you can't even wash the spirit of the Lord out of your hands. The spirit is something great. I've had the spirit in my arms, in my whole body. I've had it so much, I feel so weak in the Lord-I'm in the spirit! If you understand the spirit of the Lord, it's not weakness or sickness but meekness in the spirit.

Gracie Holland


Blind Serpent Handler, '87


Annie with Pigeon, '95

Jane with Diddles, '94



Lila and the Goose, '02


Christian,'99 [With turkey wings]

Scotty with Banjo and Tom, '92



Bert with Guitar, '92

Freddie with Bob, the 38 year old mule, '04



The Cock Fighter, '00


Tyler & Sheba, '01



Donnie with Baby & Cow's, '99

Lost Creek Farm, '96



Claude with Rooster, '05



Enos with Snappin' Turtles, '07



Carrie LeeAnn, '04



James with Clapper, '06



Shithead the Pony with Noble Family, '03



Tammy with Catfish, '04


Nancy with Parakeets, '04



Larry with Goat, '05



Aunt Glade with Tom, '73



Angelia with Banty Rooster, '03


Napier Brother's with Puppies, '93

Estill with Family and Dogs, '00



The Hog Killing, '03



Grandpa's Last Hog Killing, '73


Amy with Sheep, '90
[Amy - 6 year's old]


Amy holding Sheep photo, 18 years later.
This photo made at Exhibition, "Friends are Forever," at the "Gate Way to Heaven"
church, celebrating 35 years of photography June, 2008.


Human life is by its very nature shameful, and the repression of this fact becomes the hidden cause of much cultural damage.

Mary Ayers


Truth
“Who sees the other half of self, sees Truth."
Kwakiutl Indians

Your truth will be found behind your own eyes. We live with the “Ideal” of ourselves as something we are not. We need to see our own narcissism, instinct for domination, self-centeredness and self-delusions and break out of our own frozen regressions [ideals] of what we think it is to be a human being.

We are not complete. My Kentucky people live out their lives in a more open straightforward manner. No matter what course their lives have taken, there is less facade, more primal life. They do not choose or acknowledge the greater society’s need to wear a mask, this separates them from a more sophisticated worldview. This is not intentional, yet more independent. The lines of time and experiences show on their faces, without pretense. Some omnipotence in viewing this work is necessary from the viewer’s perspective. Therein lies the problem. If we view people as less ideal than we view ourselves, then we tend to see humanity with distance. The “other," comes to mind. My portraiture is a study about mirroring all of us to each other, as one. Welcome. I don’t believe we are as advanced in our evolution as we think we are. Look at the violence and war around us now, wearing a heavy mask.

Shelby Lee Adams


“A volcano is not a mountain like others. Raising a camera to one’s face has effects no one can calculate in advance."

Anne Carson

CBC News Special: "Sunday" - video interview with Shelby Lee Adams