SUSAN MAY TELL: Appalachia and The Rust Belt

Appalachian Mist, Altoona Pennsylvania, 2012

Photograph (c) Susan May Tell

Mama's Kitchen, Elkins, West Virginia, 2012

Photograph (c) Susan May Tell

Replica, Elkins, West Virginia, 2012

Photograph (c) Susan May Tell

The Spirit of Brownton, Brownton, West Virginia, 2012

Photograph (c) Susan May Tell

Steel Mill Memories, Steubenville, Ohio, 2012

Photograph (c) Susan May Tell

"SEEN AND FELT: Appalachia, 2012" is a portfolio of photographs of contemporary rural Appalachia and the Rust Belt: West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The photos were taken with Tri-X (b+w) film in my Leica during a summer journey in 2012. The prints are gelatin silver. – Susan May Tell

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A few summer's ago, Fine Art Photographer Susan May Tell disappeared for several months. I'm used to hearing from or read about Susan everywhere and often. As a former freelance photo-journalist for The New York Times (eventually covering the Middle East), Life Magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Agence France Presse, Crain’s New York Business, the Washington Post, and finally on staff for The New York Post covering Sports, May Tell knows her way around "Photography." Now, as ASMP-NY’s Fine Art Chair, she organizes and moderates some of the best Fine Art Photography Conversations in New York, including an extraordinary evening with panelist's Howard Greenberg (Howard Greenberg Gallery owner), Jeff Rosenheim (Curator of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Brian Wallis (Chief Curator at the International Center of Photography). Involved in all aspects of creating the successful ASMP-NY's Fine Art Portfolio Reviews twice a year, May Tell also advises about great photo exhibitions around town in her monthly Newsletter.

But one summer she just vanished. No emails, no phone calls, no news on Facebook. Months went by. Silence. More silence. And then slowly, a few posts letting us know she was in the darkroom with hundreds of rolls of film. And months after that, a few emails to say she was (still) editing hundreds or more images. Much later, she posted the results on her website of her 4,000 mile road trip through Appalachia (!) sleeping in campsites and sometimes sleeping in her car. You can read an excellent Interview with Susan May Tell that explains all about it. It's an informative and great read...begin HERE

Susan May Tell

and

An Interview with Susan May Tell

and check out her moving Series: 

"A Requiem: Tribute to the Spiritual Space at Auschwitz"