For twelve years, Stacy Kranitz has made photographs in the Appalachian region of the United States, exploring how photography can solidify or demystify stereotypes in a place where the medium has failed to depict its people equitably. Her first monograph, As It Was Give(n) to Me, was published by Twin Palms Publishers in 2022. The book neither reinforces conventional views of Appalachia as poverty-ridden nor counters them with uplift; it treats both approaches as equally problematic ways of looking at a place. Instead it opens a narrative poised between notions of right and wrong, addressing a region forced to transition away from coal extraction as its dominant source of economic stability, an opioid epidemic that has wreaked havoc on communities, and the role of Appalachia in a politically divided nation.
The 304-page clothbound hardcover, foil-stamped front and back, carries a design reminiscent of a topographical view of the region. Its 225 four-color plates are accompanied by excerpts from “Speak Your Piece,” the weekly column of the Mountain Eagle newspaper in Whitesburg, Kentucky. An independent catalogue describes the book as an archive of collected images, text, and objects tracing exploration and extraction in central Appalachia, reflecting on our relationship to representations of reality and the inherent flaws and ruptures in constructed notions of truth.
Kranitz was born in Kentucky and currently resides in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee. She approaches the region as a spectator, but not an outsider. The photographs accordingly resist the moral clarity that outsiders have often imposed, and the book becomes a sustained inquiry into how photography can solidify or demystify stereotypes, and into what the medium owes a community it has historically depicted inequitably.
The book invites attention to its construction: its sequencing, its juxtaposition of photographs and newspaper excerpts, and its design. Kranitz’s practice has concerned the ethics of representation for over a decade, and this long-gestated first monograph from Twin Palms is a book to read as well as look at, rewarding return visits.
