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Mountain Workshop Showcasing Lives of Paducahns Closes this Weekend at Yeiser Art Center

An exhibit portraying the personal stories of everyday individuals in Paducah closes this Saturday at the Yeiser Art Center. Photojournalists from across the country traveled to the city last October to take part in Western Kentucky University’s annual Mountain Workshops. Subjects carried out their daily routines as their lives were documented behind the lens. Ebony Clark met some of the subjects and a photojournalist involved in the project.

Dozens of photos line the walls of the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah’s downtown district. Amidst the walls of photos is a woman in the bathtub. The story behind the picture is one of a 55 year old transgender woman who describes alcohol and crack cocaine as once being her “mother, wife, and best friend.”

Vaysa Burton moved to Paducah from Idaho when she was 22 and made her transition three years ago. She told her story to Michigan photojournalist Tori Schneider, detailing her battles with drug addiction and the hardships she faces in a world where she sometimes feels like an outcast.  

“I told her that there was people that would love to beat the hell outta me. They’d threaten to take me in the woods and beat me up.”

Vaysa says the Mountain Workshops gave her a platform to share her story with people in the community who don’t understand her.

“It probably opened their eyes to people that are different like me who are transgender. Maybe the public will open their eyes and be more acceptive to us.... I get hateful remarks everyday but most of the time my friends know me and they give me compliments on what I wear.”

Yeiser Art Center Executive Director Stacey Reason says the workshops allow people to experience the lives of everyday individuals.

“Not necessarily someone who’s famous or a politician or something but someone who has a really great story. So it gives people that may not normally have the opportunity to share their story an avenue to voice about themselves. So it’s exciting to hear that part of Paducah.”
 

Across the room, hangs a photo taken on a farm of three distinct pairs of legs - a horse, a dog, and subject Terri Ross - an amputee who has dedicated her time to helping others like her.

Ross volunteers at Lourdes Hospital and operates “Project Care”, a program designed to provide medical equipment at no cost. Ross lost her leg in a motorcycle accident and that experience, she says, gave her a new purpose in life.

“After I wasn’t able to work anymore...I needed to find something to do. So I did. There was a niche that wasn’t being filled in the community. So my friend and I Sonya started helped people that didn’t have tub benches originally, we started helping amputees.”

Ross collects durable medical equipment from community organizations. She says sometimes Project Care gives away more than 10,000 dollars worth of equipment each month.

Ross says she shared many moments with Los Angeles photojournalist Lisa Guerrero including showing her how to ride a horse for the first time.  

The workshops also provided a first for another photojournalist, 33-year-old Tim Galloway from Detroit, Michigan. This was his first year participating in the Mountain Workshop and first time visiting Paducah. He says the workshop is a staple in the photojournalism community.

“A lot of photojournalists come to this workshop to really develop and hone their skills whether it's early in their careers and while they're in school or later.”

Galloway says he spent many late nights working to tell the story of the mother of two young children and her traveling musician husband.

“Man, it was hard (laughter) I think I averaged about 3 or 4 hours a sleep a night for a week so it was very intensive, it was very immersive… I wanted to give their life and their lifestyle as unbiased as I could of a look. It was really nice to see a family that they don’t know me, they’ve never seen me and for them to welcome me in was amazing and as I was peeling the layers back with them and spending time with the family and really learning who they are.”

Photojournalists spent a week with their assigned subjects, but Galloway says the experience extends beyond that.

“I gained some really good friends and long term friends.”

The Mountain Workshops have captured the experiences of a different Kentucky community every year since 1976. Photojournalists can apply now for the 2017 Mountain Workshops this Fall.

The next workshop will take place in Eastern Kentucky, but the location has yet to be finalized.

Ebony Clark is a student at Murray State University majoring in computer science. She was born in Brownsville, Tennessee. Ebony has served as a reporter for 4-H congress in Nashville, TN where she spoke with several state leaders and congressmen. Ebony enjoys writing poetry and spoken word and competed in Tennessee's Poetry Out Loud competition hosted by the arts council in Nashville,TN.
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