I could introduce this post by listing all the hackneyed misrepresentations of Appalachia. It would be easy. Boxing people in is easy. Writing off a region is easy. What’s more difficult is shedding some of those cliched ways of seeing in order to really look. That’s what Roger May, a photographer with his heartstrings tied to Appalachia, is trying to do. And the most important thing about his journey to re-see Appalachia is that he’s not doing it alone. I called May and asked him to tell me more about “Looking at Appalachia,” the crowdsourced photography project he is very thoughtfully facilitating.

It’s important not to overromanticize the region, to not only photograph these wisened mountain mothers and