XRAY (Don D) major one-man exhibit Knoxville,TN East Tennessee State Museum

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Xray is not the kind to announce, so as a friend, I will.
A major 94 piece exhibit of his work titled " Vanishing Appalachia" begins today.
These images are an amazing look at the portraits and culture of a proud rural region in the eastern US mountain range.
I have seen a few and plan to make the 350 mile drive to see these amazing images and visit Don.
"It's looking good for a grant from the TN Arts Comission for a coffee table book and the project I had slated to start as soon as this show was behind me is now on track to start this week. The theme is small time dirt rack racing and now has expanded to include moonshine and racing. The TN department of tourism viewed tha show last week and is talking about a grant to do the entire show and fund the photography plus the historic society has spoken for the show to start at their museum in a couple of years" , the master tells me.
If you live anywhere nearby, do yourself a favor and take the drive.
If you don't, well, this is RFF; you know how to respond.
Please see the link below:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/feb/28/photo-exhibit-captures-aspects-appalachia-before-f/
 
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Thanks Michael. Yesterdays opening was a private opening for members of the museum and a few guests. The museum folks estimated around three hundred guests viewed the show in two hours. The show represents forty years of work centering in a small region of eastern Tennessee with only a few exceptions which were photographed within a short drive of the Tennessee state line.

On the technical side about half of the 94 images were shot with Leicas and Leica glass and the others were shot with a variety of cameras ranging from Nikon, Linhof, Sinar, Deardorff, Rollei, Hasselblad, Pentax and Fuji cameras. Scheider, Goerz, Fuji, Nikkor, Takumar, Zeiss and Kodak optics were used as well. Formats ranged from 35mm to 8x10 in size. All prints were printed direct from film original negs and all are wet pints peinted in the darkroom on silver gelatin paper and given a slight selenium tone for archival purposes and additional depth.

Hope you can come and see it or it travels to your area.

Here are a few images my wife made during and before the show.

Thanks,

Don
 
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Thanks!

There will be a gallery talk and brown bag lunch the 10th of this month. If you get to Knox drop me a PM and I'll try to meet up with you for a personal tour.
 
It's about 51/2 hours for us, but we're going over to see Don and enjoy the work.
This is a collection of history which almost does not exist elsewhere.
To be nearby and not get to see it would truly be a shame.
 
Don, congrats of course! I've looked at your work online several times and it's outstanding. That there's interest from the State and Historic groups is entirely understandable. The work is exemplary. Here's to the book and the tour.

Best regards, Jan

PS, sight unseen I'm up for the book when it's published. Let me know.
 
I'd be very interested in buying a book based on the exhibit. I grew up in Kingsport TN and I try to visit the area as often as possible. I would love to eventually move back to the mountains, the people in that area would gladly give the shirt off their backs if someone needs it. I recommend a book called "Mountain Hands" for anyone interested in the people of Appalachia. The attitude of the people in the area is one of respect for one another, an attitude I've haven't always found in my travels. Popular media has painted a very skewed image of the region and the people there.
 
I don't know the schedule and locations for the the traveling show. That part is still being booked with the museums. I'm not really certain how it all works. I know I have had a couple of calls from curators requesting the show and lectures and the curator of the museum here is working with others on schedules. Part of it depends on how long each museum wants the show and what part or all of the images for their particular show. The full version of the show contains 94 images of which roughly 85 are 11x14 plus mats and frames so it takes up quite a large gallery. Not every museum can handle shows of this size so the curator had decided to make it available in three sizes depending or what fits the particular locations space. There's usually a lag between the close of the show and when it hits other museums. This show has been in the planning for four years. Normally most museums have a period of two or three years before an open slot comes for a new exhibit. A few will work closer in schedule and will have open slots due to shows canceling.

Until this exhibit I had never worked on anything of this scope and had no idea of how much goes into the planning, production, grant procurement, PR, catalog, large banners for the museum, framing and other details. The grant alone for the framing was huge and then the catalog became forty pages with a CD in each of digital sound tracks from interviews from subjects in the show. Also scholars in the field of each topic of the show, faith, KKK, moonshine etc., wrote extensive articles for the catalog. I have been trying to find out what financial commitment went into just the catalog and the best I can figure was around $30-40K. In the end there were two grants from two foundations that probably totaled between $50-60K.

The book is another project in itself that will take about a year and a half. Funding, design. production and locating the right printer are major. This is another big financial commitment which we thin we have or will have. I'm guessing here but figure this will be another $40-50K. Until the economy turned I was thinking of funding part of this myself and talked to a designer friend that had done several fine photo books and at the time he did the last book and cut production corners and had it printed in China the cost ran all most $40K.

My gallery shows have been big undertakings but didn't prepare me for anything of this magnitude but I'm a fast learner and have learned to delegate to people who know what they are doing. This saves one from going more insane as well as time and money.

Thanks for all the great comments!

Don
 
Bob T said:
I'd be very interested in buying a book based on the exhibit. I grew up in Kingsport TN and I try to visit the area as often as possible. I would love to eventually move back to the mountains, the people in that area would gladly give the shirt off their backs if someone needs it. I recommend a book called "Mountain Hands" for anyone interested in the people of Appalachia. The attitude of the people in the area is one of respect for one another, an attitude I've haven't always found in my travels. Popular media has painted a very skewed image of the region and the people there.
Click to expand...

Bob you're spot on. I've met some of the nicest people you could imagine that have become great friends. The major requirement when working with them is show the respect they deserve. There are bad people everywhere and Appalachia is no different than NY City or LA but overall they are exceptional people. The only difference in mountain folk and city folk are the opportunities they've had for education and jobs. When you're born in a remote holler in the mountains and you didn't have electricity until you were twelve and then didn't have inside plumbing till you were a young adult you simply don't know what world is just fifty miles away. The isolation has been such that they might as well be living on another planet. Things are changing now and most have phones, electricity, inside plumbing and TV so they are exposed to the outside world. Many of the kids are getting a good education and leaving the community to go to college. This is the thrust of the show, the culture they left behind and how it's fading away quickly. Once gone it's gone for ever.
 
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