Title: Carry Me Ohio
Photographer/s: Matt Eich
Contributor/s: Mike Davis, Photo Editor
Deb Pang Davis, Designer
Afterword by Brian Paul Clamp
Date of publication: May 2010
Place of publication: Berkeley, California, USA
Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches
Edition size: 100
Type of binding: Hardcover: Charcoal cloth with Silver Foil
Number of pages: 88
Number of pictures: 61
Type of printing: Digital
Printer: Edition One
Designer: Deb Pang Davis, Cococello
Editor: Mike Davis, One28 Media
Language: English
ISBN: 10-0-615-36744-5
Category: Artist book
Price: $85.00 USD
Summary: Once known for its bounty of coal, salt, clay and timber, Southeastern Ohio was stripped of its resources by the mining corporations that thrived from the 1820s to the 1960s. When they had mined all that they could, the corporations left, leaving the communities with little but their cultural identity, which is a product of poverty.
For the past three years I have been documenting the people of this region as they attempt to recover from the aftermath of extractive industry. In photographing their daily life, I’ve explored the culture of the area, as well as on the crippling poverty that threatens to extinguish it. The foothills of Appalachia have been my home for the past five years. I met my wife here and our daughter was born here. Now, the same lack of opportunity that has plagued the residents of Southeastern Ohio for decades has forced us to move.
Rampant unemployment, poor housing conditions, drug abuse and sub-standard schools have left many families here in crisis. In 2006, Athens County, one of the poorest counties in the state, had a poverty rate of 27.4 percent and a per capita income of just $14,171. With the economic downturn of the United States these numbers have only gotten worse.
My purpose in creating these images is to show the effect of corporate greed in a forgotten region of the United States. Now is the time to look inward and investigate the issues that lurk below the surface within our country. It’s the first step to resolving them.
In this community abandoned by industry, it is not only the daily struggles but living without the opportunity for economic advancement which has a lasting emotional resonance. These images are my love song to Southeastern Ohio.
Date and place of birth of photographer/s: July 11, 1986, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Website: www.matteichphoto.com or www.luceoimages.com
Book link: http://luceoimages.com/2010/05/carry-me-ohio-the-book/
Donated by: Matt Eich/LUCEO
iPL Notes: The edition in the iPL is sold out, however, a Blurb version of this book is available and includes new images from 2010. It received the People’s Choice Award in the Editorial Category for Blurb’s Photography Book Now competition 2010.
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