Appalachian Ghosts

RAYMOND THOMPSON JR
May 6 – June 18, 2022

Candela Gallery is excited to announce Raymond Thompson Jr.’s solo show, Appalachian Ghosts. Featuring a series of sculptural and framed imagery from the projects Dust and 12 Men, Thompson references a tragedy in West Virginia, in which about 800 miners, many African-American, lost their lives to silicosis due to improper drilling techniques while constructing a three-mile tunnel. Thompson’s work brings new life to the under-represented stories of these individuals:

“In Appalachian Ghosts, I explore visual possibilities of what that time and place looked like, using primary-source materials to recreate the workers’ experiences in photographs. I have also recontextualized and re-presented archive photographs, originally made to document the construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel dam and powerhouse. The few people caught in the photographic archive were often nameless and voiceless workers. Specifically, I’m looking at what has been left out of African-American visual history, which to date has mainly been documented with a colonial gaze. From this standpoint, I have sought to re/create work that has been informed by and made from historical documents and photographs.”

Raymond is an artist, educator and visual journalist based in Austin, TX. He currently works as an Assistant Professor of Photojournalism at University of Texas at Austin. He has received a MFA in Photography from West Virginia University and a MA in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. He also graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a BA in American Studies. He has worked as a freelance photographer for The New York Times, The Intercept, NBC News, NPR, Politico, Propublica, The Nature Conservancy, ACLU, WBEZ, Google, Merrell and the Associated Press.