Listen: Is Bruce Gilden’s ‘Two Days in Appalachia’ Poverty Porn? | American Photo

Link:

Roger May, the director of Looking at Appalachia, which recently got some nice coverage on Lens, was invited on West Virginia’s “Front Porch” podcast to discuss. Embedded above, you’ll hear 20 minutes of very fair criticism exploring whether Gilden’s garish images feed into existing stereotypes that plague the region in the wake of a long history of exploitative visual representation made by those who parachute in. Or, whether by virtue of being just about indistinguishable from the work Gilden makes anywhere he goes, they engage with that history in a more nuanced way.