[.ca] You're Not from Around Here: Photographs of East Tennessee (ISBN 193006618X)

When and Where in the South:
Mass. Art / Yale Uni. graduate, Mike Smith has taught and photographed the backwoods of northeast Tennessee for over 20 years. Smith moved to Tennessee to teach at East Tennessee University and subsequently feel in love with the area which shows in his photographs. Constantly dealing with being an outsider Smith has responded to his environment with eyes wide open. His photographs are of those stereotypical areas that we all know are out there, but shown with a grace and clarity that is rare in most modern landscape imagery. Who could imagine a chicken could appear so beautiful? Images like these take time, patience and above all a personal connection with the subject matter. This book is an epic view of a region in decline. Southern or not these are fine photographs by a master of his craft. highly recommended for those that appreciate William Eggleston, Walker Evans and Joel Sternfeld.

Art:
Many of us try and try to express ouselves in so many ways. Mike, because of the turns of his life (the Vietnam War) uses a camera. First look at this book as a record of art peices that you have handy, ready when you need it then let it take you to a gallery or museum that has Mike's work. This work is so huge in the empathy, the love for the people and places and the sheer importance to the vocabulary of art in America that we really have to become familiar with it. Find his work and look at it, you will be more of a human for the effort. I have looked at Mike's pictures for years. I am from this region and I know more from looking at this work, about where I am from and about Art, than I did from living here.