Customer Reviews

The Face of Appalachia: Portraits from the Mountain Farm

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Wow! What can I say. This is one beautiful book. I'm 70 and grew up living this lifestyle. I still have a farm here in Kentucky. Finally there is someone who "gets it" and shows Appalachia as it really is. Mr. Barnwell understands the people and connects with them. Through touching photographs and captivating conversations he portrays the heart and soul of the region and it's people. You know, this is how people across this great country used to live, it's just that it hung on here longer due to the isolation. So if you want to see how you father, mother, grandparents, and great grandparents lived, take a look at this book. It is one of a kind from what I've seen. I can identify with every scene, but I think folks everywhere can too, even if they weren't raised here. I think great pictures can transcend culture and be meaningful to anyone with an appreciation of life. It's one of the prettiest done books I've seen as well-great print quality and design. Folks will look back on this a hundred years from now and realize what a masterpiece of work Mr. Barnwell has created, capturing this life the way he did. I highly recommend it!

This new book is a one-of-a kind masterpiece of photographic work. There are a hundred or so photographs and they show a true view of life in the Appalachian region. They are timeless and haunting. There is a wonderful section in the back called "Oral Histories" where each person photographed tells a story about their life-which is captivating in itself. That, combined with the top-notch photographs, makes this a unique treat-beautiful images and intriguing stories from real lives. It will appeal to photographers and non-photographers alike. The images look like they could have been taken in the 1940's, but are from the last 25 years or so. Mr. Barnwell obviously spent much time getting to know these people, even being invited into their homes to record private moments in their lives. They are not the stereotypical views most photographers from outside the area do, or the exploitive poor-white-trash portrayed by other photographers like Shelby Lee Adams. But they are not simply a romantic view of days gone by, either. Rather they capture the true heart and soul of these amazing people-showing the beauty and the flaws in unflinching detail. The images are not only stunning but extremely well reproduced. The book is well organized, beautifully designed, and has wonderful production qualities. It's also a bargain compared to prices of similar quality photo books I've bought.

The quiet pictures in Tim Barnwell's The Face of Appalachia are full of small revelations. Ernest Rector, a fiercely intense elderly man, glares at the camera. One arm supports a large portrait of Jesus. The other cradles a framed magazine cover showing Johnny Cash with his wife, June Carter. You'd think he was encircling his family.

"When Bill Taylor was sick," Rector recalls, "a bunch of us went over to his place and shucked and put up seven hundred bushels of corn so his hogs would have something to eat over the winter. We didn't get a penny for it, and didn't expect it either. ...Today, if you were dying of thirst, you couldn't get a man to give you a drink of water for less than a dollar."

That story has nothing-and everything-to do with that picture. It's one of 85 brief oral histories Bramwell has appended to the more than 100 duotone portraits and landscapes here. This captivating book makes you wish more photographers wrote down what the people they picture have to say.

Barnwell's studious, scrupulous achievement is worth a long look.

Tim Barnwell has done an excellent job of choosing pictures for this book. It's in black and white and is well done. The past comes back quickly in our minds. It's hard to believe that people still live like this in our day and time much less that they choose to live this way.

Appalachia hasn't changed much over the years when it comes to the rural areas. These people look like they could have lived a hundred years ago instead of the 1980's! Gardening, quilting, plowing and haymaking are still going on today but it seems much easier in the modern world then these pictures show.

The people remind me of my grandparents. They make me want to go visit them. I'm glad there are people who want to remember and pass on the old ways.

Any one interested in farming and rural things will enjoy seeing this book. The conversations are very real and believeable even in today's world.

I had heard this was a great book on the people of Appalacia. I purchased the book for my dad for Christmas. He's from the Kentucky/West Virginia area so I hoped he would be able to relate. I was surprised to see there was no representation of these areas in the book. It should have been called The Face of North and South Carolina. That would have been more accurate. The book on its own is ok, but not what I expected.

I bought this book as a gift for my dad. He enjoys looking at the pictures and remembering days gone by. The subjects are definitely real and the photos make you think you have 'been there.'

I saw this book at an outfitters store in a small town in North Carolina. I don't pay full price for anything so I wrote down the title and the author to buy it from amazon.com at a later time.

I purchased this for my Daddy for Christmas because he is a part time farmer. I loved the pictorial depictions of regular mountain folks just like us. I loved the first hand interviews and the stories that come straight from the locals mouths. My Daddy LOVED this book and could not put it down. Farming by these methods is slowly going away and it is nice to have a photographic record of how things were done back in the day. Especially setting and grading tobacco, since I did those things as a kid.

This is a perfect gift for any farmer or country gal/guy.