Karen Abbott

Short Mountain, Tenn. – STV
hand tinted b/w silver gelatin print
16 x 20 in.

I have a new direction with my recent photographs. I have taken to a different landscape. I see forests and meadows of hair; eyes resembling coves and hollows. I am now photographing the hills and valleys of cheeks and noses. I was permitted to shoot portraits of the people on Short Mountain in Tennessee. They are society’s misfits and outcasts. They have found a home in this commune and they granted me a short time with them so that I could capture these human butterflies as they landed for only a moment.

© Karen Abbott