The magazine of the photo-essay
November 2018 back issue
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film maker
by Bertien Van Manen
Spanning almost three decades, Moonshine is a portrait of the American
Appalachian folk, a mythologised region populated by ‘moonshiners’. Van Manen’s
images are defined by a fierce intimacy with her subject, as the viewer teeters on the
edge of the frame, perpetually trespassing on private moments: rollicking children
practicing handstands on the couch; a kneeling daughter combing the hair of her
grandmother.
Van Manen first visited the region in 1985, to the Appalachian areas of Kentucky,
Tennessee and West Virginia, returning periodically up until 2013 to visit mining
families with whom she lived: the Boggs family with their ten red-haired sons; miners
Mavis and Junior. The intergenerational images subtly trace the insidious changes
undergone by Appalachia – the slow and steady demise of the mining industry, and the migration of inhabitants from
ramshackle wooden cabins to the city, or urban trailer parks. Van Manen intermixes black-and-white images with later
colour work – another register of time passing and the inevitability of change.
Amanda, Bobby and Meggin on porch, 1987, Cumberland KY.
Billy and Sue looking after Junior, 1987, Cumberland KY.
David on swing, 1987, Van, West Virginia.
Helen and Cammy with dog, 1987, Cumberlnd KY
Justin, Amanda, Meggin and Chat, 1987, Cumberland KY
Larry and his grandfather, 1987, Cumberland KY
Libby, 2007, West Virginia
Mabel and Allen, 1988, Cumberland KY
Meggin putting on make-up, 1996, Cumberland KY
Partying on coal stripmine, 1987, Cumberland KY
Social Housing, 1996, Cumberland KY
Untitled, 1987
Alan in front of window, 2007, Tennessee.
Blue Car, 1996.
Dorothy, 1987, West Virginia.
Kendra in evening dress, 2007, Cumberland KY.
Partying on coal stripmine, 1987, Cumberland KY.
Red Barn, 2007, Tennessee.
Red in his coffin, 1996, Cumberland KY.
