Shelby Lee Adams
Shelby Lee Adams (born October 24, 1950) is an American environmental portrait photographer and artist best known for his images of Appalachian family life. He has photographed Appalachian families since the mid-1970s. He first encountered some families of the Appalachian mountains as a child, traveling around the area with his uncle, who was a doctor. Adams was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and an NEA Survey Grant and a Guggenheim Photography Fellowship. His work has been published in five monographs: Appalachian Portraits (1993), Appalachian Legacy (1998), Appalachian Lives (2003), and salt & truth (2011), From the Heads of the Hollers (2023) and has recently completed a documentary film by James Hollenbaugh, In the Spirit of the People (2024).