Arts This Week: Michael Snyder’s Alleghania
By Sage Tanguay
Pooja Viswesh: You’re listening to WTJU Charlottesville. At New Dominion bookshop, photographer and filmmaker Michael O. Snyder will host a book talk where he will speak about his new book, Alleghania. This event takes place Saturday, June 28 from 7pm to 8pm. For Arts This Week, we chatted with Michael Snyder.
Michael Snyder: Oh, hi there. Thanks for having me. My name is Mike Snyder. I’m a documentary photographer and a filmmaker, and I have been for almost 15 years. Geographically, my work can really be divided into two areas, I suppose. One is essentially all over the world. I just got back from working in Mongolia and Bhutan, where I was partnering with National Geographic, and I’ve also worked in places like the Arctic and the Amazon, so it’s kind of all over the place. And then region number two is Appalachia, and that’s where I grew up, and it’s sort of a spiritual home. All of my projects, really, no matter where I’m working, are about people and about culture. I’m of the opinion that humans are the weirdest and most fascinating animal in the animal kingdom, and so I’m usually interested in exploring how cultures are changing, especially, but not exclusively, because of environmental change. And now I’m also a professor at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School in upstate New York, where I live with my wife and two kids.
Pooja: What were your initial inspirations and goals when approaching this project.
Michael: Well, this project is now a book that’s titled Allegheny, but it got its start way back in 2011 as a project called the mountain traditions project. And the idea was basically this; Appalachia is a region that is practically synonymous with insularity and with tradition, but it’s also a place that’s changing and changing more quickly than any time in its history. And then at the same time, in the twenty-teens, America seemed to wake up and remember that its rural citizens still existed. There was the opioid crisis, the 2016 election books like JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, and suddenly there was a lot of outside attention to the region as well. So the idea in starting this project was really to document the culture of Appalachia during this incredible time of change, and to explore the ways that it’s changing, but also how it’s staying the same, like, what do we hold on to while all this is happening? Personally, my goals were really, first to show that this is a much more diverse place than people think. Second, in spite of all the differences and divisions that we often focus on today in our society, I think, I believe, that the reality is we have a lot more in common with each other than we typically think, and what we value and what we hold dear is largely shared. And I wanted to explore that and show that.
Pooja: What are some drawbacks you faced in making this anthology, and what helped you to overcome them?
Michael: Yeah, well, I mean, one, one challenge you have in a book like this is who do you leave in and who do you leave out? Right? It can’t be infinitely large, so you necessarily have to be editorial. So for example, you know, this is, this is a book about Appalachia. That’s what we’ve been talking about. But if you flip through the pages of the book, you see that there’s no Kentucky, there’s no North Carolina, there’s no Tennessee. They’re left out of a project like this, and they are famously and classically Appalachia. So why is that this project is really, really focused on the Alleghenies? And the reason that I’m making it about that region is that’s where I grew up. And what I would argue is that there’s a real value in approaching a project like this in an author centered kind of way, and that’s because I really find that oftentimes the best documentary work is done when there’s some degree of intimate collaboration that’s happening between the author and the subject.
Pooja: What is one piece of advice you’d give to any young future curators out there that are looking to make a project just like this about their own home that they feel connected to?
Michael: Yeah. So the first thing I would say, there are stories everywhere. There are stories in our homes. There are stories in our place of work. There are stories in our neighborhood. My advice to anybody starting out in this field is, start from there, right. Start from what you know. Start from what you have access to. All great documentary work is really about relationships. I would say, even though documentary work is really about being objective in a sense, and again, recording what is done best when it comes from a place that is deeply personal and deeply relational. So I really encourage folks in this field that are starting to start there.
Pooja: Thank you so much for your time. Where can listeners find more of your work?
Michael: Yeah, well, well, first, I certainly invite you to come out to the book talk and book signing events. I’m going to be reading some sections from the book and showing you all the photos in there. I’ll be doing some book signing and so on. And second, of course, you can, you can find me online. I’m on Instagram at Michael O. Snyder, and you can find me at www.michaelosnyder.com, as well.
Pooja: For more information about Michael Snyder and his new book, Alleghania, check out ndbookshop.com and www.michaelosnyder.com.
Arts this week is supported by the UVA Arts Council and Piedmont Virginia Community College. PVCC Arts presents a rich array of dance, music, theater and visual arts programming. Learn more@pvcc.edu.
