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"

LISA ELMALEH: American Folk at Foley Gallery

Matthew Kinman and Moses Nelligan, West Virginia , 2013
Photograph © Lisa Elmaleh

 

 Janice Birchfield, Tennessee, 2013
Photograph © Lisa Elmaleh

Jim Costa's Porch, West Virginia, 2013
Photograph © Lisa Elmaleh

Lisa Elmaleh has been creating tintypes of traditional folk musicians who live in and around the Appalachian Mountains since 2010. Her project grew out of a love of the land, American folk music, traditional American culture and her own romance with this 19th century photographic process.

Portraits captured by tintype call for great patience from both the sitter and the photographer. An entire day is spent with each musician - each 8x10 plate is hand coated, exposed in a large format camera, and developed on-site. The tradition of American folk music echoes in the historic nature of the tintype photographic process, connecting photographer with subject, each with their pursuit of keeping their own respective histories alive and well in the 21st Century.

These warm-toned portraits combined with a selection of their natural landscape counterparts, provides a full setting for understanding a way of life.  The crops are garlic and tobacco and the wardrobe is dungaree and flannel.  Hands are well worn, larger from labor and the rigorous playing on their instrument of choice.  Elmaleh’s approach is simple and straight forward which echoes the lifestyle and the plain dresses worn by her female subjects.
 

Elmaleh lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.  She holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NY.  Her photographs have been exhibited widely including a solo exhibition at Candela Books + Gallery in Richmond, VA. Group exhibitions include ArtCenter South Florida, Miami, FL; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA; Bronx Biennial Group Show, Bronx, NY.  Her work has been published in Harper’s and Black & White magazines.  She is a past recipient of the Tierney Fellowship. (Text courtesy the Foley Gallery)

Lisa Elmaleh - American Folk

July 17 - August 9, 2014

FOLEY GALLERY, NY