Photographer and Filmmaker Michael O. Snyder is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the series ‘The Mountain Traditions Project’. To see Michael’s body of work, click on any photograph.

The Appalachian Mountain region is deeply synonymous with tradition. Here on remote mountains and in inaccessible hollers, Scottish, Irish, and German immigrant traditions mixed with Indigenous and West African heritage. Though often stereotyped by outsiders and overlooked by historians, this unique combination of cultural mixing and geographic isolation in Appalachia has gifted the nation with many uniquely American forms of art, music, food, folklore, and dance.

Though the culture of Appalachia has a rich history of documentation in the 20th century, there has been a significant increase in interest in recent years. The internet, the global economy, and the widening of roads have all co-conspired to bring attention and change to a region that dramatically resisted it for generations. In the past decade, conversations about the future of coal (highlighted during the 2016 and 2020 elections) and controversial publications such as Hillbilly Elegy have reignited a heated dialogue about what it means to be ‘Appalachian’.

As a native to Appalachia myself, the question of identity and belonging is one that I have long grappled with. I grew up on 12 acres of reclaimed mining land near the border of Western Maryland and West Virginia. As children we were taught how to watch out for sinkholes and how to tell if the acid levels in the family well were too high for drinking. My schoolmates all looked and talked much the same way that I did. I had three channels of television, and the edge of my home was the edge of my world. That world, for the most part, seemed unchanging. But as I grew up, so too did Appalachia. The internet brought a world of possibility, which I availed myself to, applying to a college outside of the region. Like many young Appalachians, I was eager to escape the confines of rural life for the promise of a broader world. I studied geography and photography and built a career documenting changing cultures the world over.

Nearly two decades passed before I returned to the mountains of my youth. Coming back – now with a young family of my own – I began to wonder what the true identity of Appalachia is and what connection I had to it. In particular, I wondered if the places, traditions, and lifeways that I had known as a child were still there. In my research, explorations, and conversations, I found an Appalachia that is at once engulfed in change, and at the same time engaging its heritage more deeply than ever before. Fascinated, I decided to document this important, influential, and rapidly changing region at this unique point in history. While much of the media about Appalachia has been largely negative, extractive, and intended for urban audiences, I wanted to create a document that is celebratory, authentic, empowering, and interesting both to local and national audiences.

For the past 10 years I have been documenting ‘Tradition Bearers’ in the Allegany Mountains sub-region of Appalachia (including West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania). Using photography, videography, and recorded interviews, I have worked with 70 individuals who are carrying forward Appalachian traditions in our rapidly changing world, asking them what is changing, what remains the same, and how they are adapting to the times. The Mountain Traditions Project has been deeply influenced by previous documentary and humanities projects in Appalachia, such as Foxfire. The goal has been both to build upon and to expand upon that work, exploring the culture of Appalachia as a rich, diverse tapestry of traditions, and approaching documentation as celebration of heritage that is inclusive of a plurality of voices, identities, and perspectives. Similarly, I have taken a broad definition of ‘tradition’ to include not only the arts, but also lifeways that are central to the Appalachian story. Some traditions are relatively new. Others are centuries old. The traditions list includes: Logging, Banjo Playing, Butchery, Homesteading, Climbing, Caving, Taxidermy, Fishing, Cider Making, Moonshining, Trapping, Hunting, Cross Country Skiing, Kayaking, Ballad Singing, Paw Paw Cultivation, Beekeeping, Metalworking, Fiddle Playing, Hiking, Ramp Hunting, Storytelling, Barn Dancing, Maple Syrup Making, Moonshining, and Herbalism. Each of the 70 essays in the project are derived from recorded three-hour interviews and contain a photographic portrait. In each instance, the goal has been to explore tradition as a dynamic, diverse, transformative force that is constantly at tension between the norms of the past and the cultural, economic, and technological movements of the present. The Tradition Bearers were carefully selected not only for their knowledge and expertise of craft, but their diversity, including: age, ethnicity, gender, identity, birthplace, politics, religion, education, and socio-economic status.

My hope is that children of Appalachia will be able to see themselves in the portraits and understand that they, like the child I once was, are part of the dynamic, exciting conversation about what it means to be ‘Appalachian’.

Michael O. Snyder (b. 1981) is a photographer and filmmaker documenting the climate crisis and related social-environmental issues. In addition to creating visual stories, he is deeply interested in how our narratives can help drive social impact.

His work has been featured by outlets such as National Geographic, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. He's been honored by awards such as the Portrait of Humanity Award (Winner), the Decade of Change Award (Winner), The Welcome Prize for Photography (Shortlist), the LensCulture Portrait Awards (Finalist), and the Visualizing Climate Change Award (Winner). Snyder is a Pulitzer Grantee, a Climate Journalism Fellow at the Bertha Foundation, a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, and an Assistant Professor of Visual Communication at Syracuse University's Newhouse School in New York.

Through his production company, Interdependent Pictures, he has directed films in the Arctic, the Amazon, the Himalaya, and East Africa. His films have been selected to over 60 festivals, have taken home numerous awards, have been sponsored by companies such as Sony and GoPro, and have been distributed by outlets such as New Day Films and Films for Change. Michael often lectures on visual storytelling and its potential as a tool for social impact. He has been a featured speaker at the United Nations Climate Conference and has lectured at universities such as Yale, Columbia, and the Alfred Wegener Institute. In 2022, the University of Edinburgh named him one of its most “influential alumni making a significant contribution to climate science and justice.”

An adventurer at heart, Michael has hiked the Appalachian and John Muir Trails, cycled across Europe, and ridden trains through Siberia. Originally from a small town in Appalachia, Snyder has lived around the world including long-term stints in Scotland, Japan, Hawaii, and New Zealand. Michael holds an MSc in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, and a BSc from Dickinson College, Pennsylvania.

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2 thoughts on “The Appalachian Mountain”

Jane Risdon says:

December 8, 2023 at 7:04 AM

Fantastic. Shared on X
clcouch123 says:

December 7, 2023 at 12:53 PM

Fantastic text and photographs! Thank you! (I’ve spent my life around and through these parts.)