There’s a bite-sized symposium about the challenges of photographing Appalachia happening over at the Oxford American right now, and it’s a great read. In his essay, “Looking Without Fear,” Roger May writes:
Recently, I was thinking about my grandfather and missing him a great deal. I decided to flip through his bible where, throughout the worn pages, he’d scribbled notes, passages, and sometimes prayer requests. Though I couldn’t find it, I remember the bookmark on which he’d written the word “fear” as an acronym; False Evidence Appearing Real.
I’ve heard that often our own shortcomings are easier seen in others. I think this can be applied to our fears, our discomfort about not only how others perceive us, but deeper still how we perceive ourselves.
