BUILDER LEVY:
Appalachia USA
has seen powerful explosives
tear apart mountain summits,
followed by giant draglines that
scoop out the exposed veins of
coal in massive, destructive
quantities. He has also witnessed strikes and picket lines,
desperation and rage, hope and
dignity, and the inevitable natural and man-made disasters
that are part of the territory.
Levy’s images connect
viewers to the heart of coal
mining, bringing them deep
underground where miners toil
at the arduous and sometimes
perilous work. Through his
adept, empathetic portraiture,
Levy connects with the miners on a personal level. His lens
captures the intimate interiors
of family homes, takes in the
natural beauty of the landscape
—even as it is marred through
mining—and captures the distinctive rural vernacular and
material culture that marks the
region’s unique identity.
Levy began this work in
1968. Initially, the project was
a labor of love, supported by
his teacher’s salary. Later, he
was funded by grants to complete the project. He undertook the Appalachian project
as a personal commitment to
social justice and employed the
documentary tradition to both
record and teach others about
the social landscape of America. In doing so, he hoped to
dispel popular “hillbilly” steOnV
i e w
Ma
g a z i n e
.
c om
•
reotypes by presenting his subjects in a way that emphasizes
their humanity and dignity.
“Levy’s photographs bring
to life a group of people who
have often been marginalized
and stereotyped in the media,”
said Jones. “This exhibition
displays the artist’s dedication
to documenting the region
and community, and demonstrates his continued return to
the area over the course of four
decades to capture the changing story of Appalachia and its
people on film.”
In the new millennium,
Levy revisited Appalachia to
gain a new perspective and to
complete his work. These trips
included reconnecting with
some of the subjects of his
earlier pictures and witnessing
how decades of mining had
impacted the region. Beginning in 2002, Levy took ten
flights over southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky to
witness the grand scale of the
mining operations, which left
behind the poisonous byproducts of massive mechanized
coal extraction. The exhibition
at The Ringling features imagJ
u ly
/S
e p t e m b e r
2015
83