Asheville-based photographer Ken Abbott is having an wonderful 2016.
First of all, Abbott's book of work made at Hickory Nut Gap Farmin Fairview, NC, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, was published by Goosepen Press, with the name Useful Work: Photographs of Hickory Nut Gap Farm.
Then, Abbott was invited to do a solo show of his work from this portfolio at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies, now up until September 10.
This is a beautifully-mounted show, with Abbott's images of Hickory Nut Gap Farm elegantly displayed in the Center for Documentary Studies' galleries -- it is not to be missed if you are in Durham.
Then, Useful Work was reviewed in Aperture, go here. It was featured by Aline Smithson on Lenscratch, go here.
It was featured on Jeff Rich's Eyes on the South blog for the Oxford American, go here.
blog, go here.
Useful Work was also featured in Abbott's hometown paper, the Biltmore Beacon, go here.
And now, Abbott and Useful Work has been featured in PDN's Photo of the Day feature, go here.
Abbot's work has also been featured on Slate, go here.
So, Abbott is on a considerable roll this summer, and a well-deserved roll it is.
This work is elegantly seen, evoking a rich sense of the place and the people and of the lives that have thrived and endured in these buildings and on this land.
Besides, as I sit here in my office in Raleigh, and its 95 degrees outside, I somehow feel cooler, just looking out at the Blue Ridge from the spot Abbott places me in the image above, on the porch at the farm, where already there is a welcome touch of autumn in the air.
Congratulations to Abbott on this work, and on earning the recognition, and on the prospect of what may still lie ahead.
After all, its only July.