Black Diamonds is a personal endeavor to connect with the Appalachian region Rich-Joseph Facun now calls home. As a person of color, he defines his community based on personal experience, which diverges from the stereotypes of race, religion, gender, and politics that are often attached to the region by outsiders. His images hint at life as it once was, sharing the hyperrealism of what it is today and the uncertainty of what it is to become in the coal mining boomtowns of bygone days. Life in Appalachia is fraught with mystery and mischaracterization. Yet, in all his interactions, the simple needs of day-to-day survival loom larger than the abstract issues of politics. The images strive for an understanding of people and place in these rural, isolated foothills pocked with poverty; where a heritage of hospitality, not hate, is an unspoken psalm.
Press
- CNN
cnn.com
“Facun's resulting survey of Appalachia doesn't reduce the region to its politics, but instead is an exercise in making connections and understanding his home.”
- It's Nice That
itsnicethat.com
“There are so many stories to be unearthed throughout Rich-Joseph’s Black Diamonds, having met a range of inspiring people in the process of shooting…[The book] is a kind and honest documentation of the community he’s now part of.”
- Strange Fire Collective
strangefirecollective.com
“Where do we bury our deepest lights, our brightest darks, for sunshine lamps to find? Facun uses his camera to find out. To think about language and internal landscapes; putting old words, old worlds into new pictures.”
- British Journal of Photography
1854.photography
“Black Diamonds transcends stereotypes of Appalachia, instead documenting Facun’s more nuanced experience as both a member of and outsider to its communities. In turn, his photographs bridge the distance between him and his new home.”
- The Washington Post
washingtonpost.com
“…it’s work that transcends a particular place or people. It’s about community, how we build lives, how each of us either does, doesn’t or tries to fit in. We forget and forget and that’s why repeated reminders like “Black Diamonds” are important.”
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