The True Meaning of Pictures

Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia

The True Meaning of Pictures is a feature length documentary which addresses the issue of representation in documentary photography by examining the work of American photographer Shelby Lee Adams.

More specifically, the film seeks to (i) spend time with the subjects of Adam's work, in order to get to know them better and (ii) address the controversy and response Adams' photographs generate, which involves the politics of representation. Both strands of the film will combine to explore the larger-- and also self-reflexive-- issue of whether it is possible to "document" a community. The emotional intention is to compel viewers to move beyond voyeurism into empathy, so that by the end of the film they will feel authentically connected to people with whom they assume they have nothing in common.