At the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of the War on Poverty, photographer Roger May was thinking of those images. He was thinking about who got to shape the narrative back in 1964 and who could have a say in 2014. He posted an invitation on Instagram for photographers to share images of Appalachia. Any image from the 420 counties categorized as Appalachian by the Appalachian Regional Commission would be interesting to see. Graciously overwhelmed by the submissions, he assembled an editorial team and advisory board. He launched a website. He imagined it would be a mark in time — this anniversary of a moment when Appalachia became an object. It was a way to control the narrative by making Appalachia both the subject and the object. He imagined the moment would pass. It did not.

“Looking at Appalachia” is now in its fifth year, and continues to evolve as a project that enables self-representation. The website divides the selected images by the states they represent, and now includes 563 images. Scrolling through the website, you see Appalachia. Mechanics, farmers, poets, tattoo artists, preachers, and builders. Mountains under descending fog, mountains with their tops blasted off, mountains covered in snow. Car lots and tobacco barns and trailer parks and factories. Schools and rivers and kudzu and train tracks. Dancers and soldiers and barbers and loafers. Laughter and pride and sorrow and regret. You see Appalachia and know that it is also America.

Collectively, the photographs resist consensus. They make those round edges jagged simply by including so many pictures from so many perspectives. To empower people from Appalachia to show what they see is to complicate Appalachia. Without effort, the place is cast as messy and contradictory — like anywhere else. In the collection, there is no apology for the river baptisms and the tent revivals. There is space for a lawn strewn with toys and for a tidy woodpile. The power of this experiment of radical self-representation is that there is no controlling for an agenda. There is no purpose other than to show Appalachia as it is. And by existing, these people, these places, and these images blow up the stereotypes that fit neatly in a frame and can be cordoned off with a county line.