Stacy Kranitz (see images above and below) has a new book of work made in the Appalachians now out from HERE Press, go here.
The book is entitled Speak your Piece, and contains work Kranitz has made over the past six years of living and working in the mountains of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas.
Kranitz calls her portfolio of this work As it was Give(n) to Me.
Her new book draws on images from that portfolio, but also includes material drawn from an archive of text, drawings, and objects that explore the histories of the Appalachian region.
Kranitz's images and text explore the human impact of the exploration and extraction of the natural resources of this area.
She also examines the history of representations of reality in Appalachia, considering photography's capability for depiction, but also the flaws and ruptures in our notions of the truth inherent in the image making process.
Some of the material in this book explores the human and natural costs of the coal industry, and its current decline.
Kranitz looks thoughtfully and respectfully at the consequences of this decline, including the prevalence of drug use, strife in family relationships, love, lust and loneliness.
Her images document how the human responses in this region to the challenges of economic change can range from the heartwarming to the heartbreaking, from the comic to the tragic.
For Kranitz, what is remarkable is how these responses are universal as well as local, unique to this region but also generalizable to broader considerations of human experience.
Everywhere, not just Appalachia, has its customs and rituals, its many-faceted approaches to making meaning of life.
Kranitz' work is getting national press coverage, here, for example, on Juxtapoz.
And here, on The Fader, where Kranitz was proclaimed to be one of 25 photographers we need in our lives.
The publication of Speak Your Piece anticipates a solo show Kranitz is having of this work at Little Big Man Gallery in Los Angeles in February 2017.
More on that show still to come on The Southern Photographer.