Book Description

‘Felling & Pining’ depicts life, death, faith, and doubt in the poorest and most pious parts of the United States. With 430 original color images, John Howard looks back to 19th and 20th century southern communities, examines present-day legacies, and “pines forward”—not toward a heavenly afterlife but a near future rife with progressive possibility. The photobook contrasts nature’s beauty with bleak histories of Native American expulsion, African American slavery, pernicious labor exploitation, and persistent environmental degradation, insisting that we can and must do better. Punctuated with warm portraits of the Deep South’s diverse peoples, it honors their forebears and holds out hope for their heirs. ‘Felling & Pining’ is an unusual and impassioned visual plea for social and economic justice.