Title: Carry Me Ohio (Blurb Edition)

Photographer/s: Matt Eich

Contributor/s: Mike Davis, Photo Editor
Deb Pang Davis, Designer
Afterword by Brian Clamp

Date of publication: July 2010

Place of publication: USA

Dimensions: 8×10 inches

Edition size: Print On Demand

Type of binding: Hardcover: Image Wrap

Number of pages: 93

Type of paper: Premium Lustre

Number of pictures: 68

Type of printing: Digital

Printer: Blurb

Designer: Deb Pang Davis, Cococello

Editor: Mike Davis, One28 Media

Language: English

ISBN: 10-0-615-36744-5

Category: POD

Price: $85.00

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 and www.luceoimages.com

Book link: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1450370 or http://luceoimages.com/2010/05/carry-me-ohio-the-book/

Donated by: Blurb

iPL Notes: This book won the People’s Choice Award in the Editorial Category for Blurb’s Photography Book Now competition 2010.

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