IMAGES OF APPALACHIA

Appalachia is one of those regional names which brings instant images to almost all of us. To some the term conjures the rolling hills of the Allegheny Plateau and colored October leaves turning in the afternoon sun, to others it surfates the faces and looks of the miners standing, waiting, knowing the fate of comrades caught inside one of the many mine disasters so characteristic of the region. All of us have images like these of the places that we know and have visited lying uncatalogued in our minds to be drawn to consciousness when prodded by the people and places that we associate with them. But how well do these memory keys really serve us? Do our images of Appalachia and other places really recall the true character of a place and its people; and more importantly, is it possible to categorize and dissect these images to gain a better understanding of what gives a certain place or region a distinctive image? What follows is an exercise in image collection, an attempt to discover some of the qualities which have given a particular region a distinctive image in the American mind.