©Stacy Kranitz / CNN Photos
It's been nearly a week since CNN featured the work of photographer Stacy Kranitz on their photo blog, sparking a stream of controversy about the portrayal of Appalachians. Titling the series "Life in Appalachia" was as offensive to viewers as many of the photographs were. Within days, Kranitz spoke to CNN and expressed her concern about the misrepresentation of her work. CNN agreed to replace some of the photographs with less controversial ones, but for many, it was too little, too late.
It's worth noting that, as of this writing, the CNN's story has received 342 comments (pictured in the screenshot above). That's more than any other story since photographer Malgorzata Saniewska's set of photographs of Lady Gaga in "Before she was Gaga: The unseen photos," which ran on 24 February 2012 and received 351 comments. Some of the picture stories CNN featured between the Gaga series and the Appalachia series include children affected by cystic fibrosis (50 comments), rape in Haitian refugee camps (43 comments), a deadly water crisis in India (21 comments), violence in Juarez, Mexico (66 comments), life in war-torn Somalia (62 comments), faces of the Taliban (88 comments), Liberian civil war (7 comments), and remembering the Bosnian war 20 years later (39 comments).
What does this tell us? For me, (aside from a misplaced fixation on Lady Gaga) it demonstrates the very real power of the visual stereotype many people still have of Appalachia and how vocal people can be when they feel misrepresented. It also demonstrates that CNN saw a huge number of comments, second only to Lady G, in the last several months. I don't want to get into the habit of assuming anything, but since CNN has remained silent on the issue, it's hard not to think they knew what they were doing when they ran the first set of 16 images from Kranitz's series. Again, the CNN editors listed for the series - Robert Johnson and Matthew Rond - haven't made any effort to explain or defend their first edit of Kranitz's images. I learned this evening, during a phone interview with Kranitz, that CNN Digital's Director of Photography, Simon Barnett, was the person responsible for making the changes to the series, which is what viewers now see, not the original edit. According to Kranitz, he asserted how much he cared about his photographers and wanted her to make sure he understood that the first edit wasn't true to her intentions for the project.
Of the pictures that didn't make it into either edit, I really wish the picture above would've been included. It's the only African-American featured in any of the photographs from the "Old Regular Mountain" series. I'm partial to it because of it's composition, dramatic lighting, framing and pose of the young woman. This image wasn't one of 33 Kranitz submitted to CNN after they contacted her about the project. I asked Kranitz why the image didn't make the cut. She explained, rather honestly, that not very much time was spent on preparing the edit to submit, and that she wasn't very good at editing her own work. (I can attest to not being very good at editing my own work either.)
Of the 33 images Kranitz submitted to CNN, two were of the KKK. They selected two KKK images for their 16-image run. I'm not certain why Kranitz chose to submit two of these images, but it begs the question - Is it a coincidence CNN selected two photographs that, by their very nature lend themselves to controversy, for such a short photo essay? What was the intent of the editors? Until someone from CNN provides an explanation, we won't truly know. We know Kranitz, unhappy with the selection, replaced five images. Kranitz sent me her original submission to CNN - all 33 photographs. She also sent me the five images later replaced by CNN. What I don't have is a record of CNN's first edit, so if anyone reading this by chance has that, please contact me. I'd like to run the two edits side-by-side at some point.
I asked Kranitz if she had any record of the first edit by CNN in an email earlier today. Following are excerpts of her email as well as some other points I think are key to this conversation:
- Unfortunately, I did not make a record of the original CNN edit. I only remember it opening with the KKK cross burning followed by a Holiness Pentecostal snake handler image. I remember this being followed by several images that represented different types of christianity in the region. Unfortunately because they followed a cross burning and snake handler photograph they looked like representations of extreme fundamentalism instead of different aspects of how christianity is practiced in Appalachia. The Old Regular Baptists are unique to this area and their numbers are dwindling just like the Holiness Pentecostal snake handling churches. They each offer very different interpretations of the bible for their followers. The Old Regular Baptists do not handle snakes and the Holiness Pentecostal churches do not participate in a foot washing ceremony. In my larger edit of 77 images they are given more room to be independent representations but in the 16 image edit it is harder to see them as separate religious practices.
- The woman being oiled up is not a stripper. She was a participant in a bikini contest at a local bar.
- When the editors agreed to revise the edit to better fit my intentions, they invited me to send them the changes that I wanted to see. I focused on reordering the images and removing one of the Klan photos, two of them was not necessary for such a small edit. I then removed the bikini contest photo because people were confusing it for an image of a stripper. I also removed one of the religious images because I felt that CNN had originally chosen too many. I replaced those images with an image of coal miner, a young boy in a river and my friend Steve with his x-girlfriend.
- I wanted to make as few changes as possible. The main failure was the arrangement and front-loading of such provocative images. It made it impossible to view the other images with any objectivity. With just some minor tweaking I felt that it was possible to redirect the criticism and frustration to a more legitimate place. The dialogue and criticism taking place surrounding the images is important. I am in the very early stages of the project so it seems reasonable for their to be major failures in the work.
Kranitz continues in her email to make some interesting points and asks an important question:
Because I am in the early stages of a project that will likely transform, change and look very different as years go by, I value this type of dialogue and all of the confusion that has occurred this week. It allows me to do what I want most. To reflect on the power of the image to think about the capabilities of the documentary tradition and make work that not only continues this tradition but comments on its limitations and influence. I am currently in the process of thinking about new experiments, questions and methodologies for my upcoming trip. I leave in less than a month to return to the region.
With this in mind, I am interested in having a dialogue about alternative approaches to photography in the area. I am not making a travel brochure. Those already exist. I am an outsider and therefore my relationship to the area is different from someone who grew up there. Is there a place for outsider depictions of Appalachia or should this type of project only be done by someone who has lived there?
What do you think?
In the week since CNN ran her photographs, Kranitz has dealt head-on with questions about her work. "As difficult as it's been, it's been very valuable to me as a photographer," she said. She'll continue to work the "gray areas" as she calls them, the challenging spaces of demystifying stereotypes and realizes that not everyone will understand or appreciate what she's doing. She's heading back to Appalachia for a four-month trip soon and plans to reconnect with the folks she's photographed there. I asked if any of the those people have contacted her to complain. They haven't. She raises concern about the snake-handling church in Jolo, West Virginia and how they may have been negatively impacted by all this. She plans on having a conversation with them and being clear about what transpired.
Over on Twitter this weekend, I was involved in a conversation with a few photographers about the editorial process of this CNN piece. John Edwin Mason made a statement that fascinated me and I think has some serious weight to the conversation about stereotypes in Appalachia. He said, "Contempt for the white working class is the last acceptable prejudice for (many, not all) middle-class liberals." What do you think about this?
In the next post in this series, I'd like to continue the conversation about visual stereotypes of Appalachia by looking at work from Mary Ellen Mark, Builder Levy, Shelby Lee Adams, William Gedney, and others, and seeing where it shakes out on this issue. As always, your feedback is welcome.