Good News Mountaineer Garage Gallery
221 Hale Street - Charleston, WV 25301
304-344-8445
Contents © 2007 Downtown Charleston ArtWalk
Art images used by permission and are the property of the artist.
Left Alone: The Pride and Fear of Isolation in Southern West Virginia - Mike Andrick
Since May 2007, Mike Andrick has documented the
residents of the Big Creek district in southern McDowell County, West Virginia. A region historically dependent on coal mining, the
area is now one of the most impoverished in the nation. In a place where education is second-rate and economic opportunity is scarce,
its residents remain proud of their home, their family and even their ignorance of what is outside their mountainous community. Andrick's
photographs are intended to show the pride of people from an insular community and their fear of what may be beyond it. Mike
Andrick
is a native of Bridgeport, West Virginia, and is a professor of journalismand mass communications at Marshall University.