Swedish photographer Mikael Lundström has documented the harsh realities of life in America's Appalachian region through his striking new photo book "Overburden," published by Kerber Verlag in Berlin. The 128-page collection presents a haunting portrait of communities caught between economic decline and cultural resilience, where residents cling to hope amid deteriorating infrastructure and limited opportunities.
The photographs immediately strike viewers as almost cinematic in their composition, with some images appearing so stylized they could have been computer-generated. The lighting often seems artificial, creating an unsettling contrast between the pursuit of authenticity and the obvious craftsmanship behind each shot. Faces appear strangely contrasted, sometimes eerily smooth despite the weathered environment, creating what might be described as "magazine kitsch" with an expressionist aesthetic that proves impossible to ignore.
Lundström's lens captures the Appalachian landscape under perpetually threatening skies, evoking films and television series where hope dies early in the narrative. The book presents dilapidated houses along rivers, a coal-loaded Dodge truck parked outside a makeshift workshop, and fog-shrouded parking lots where one might expect zombies rather than the three dogs that stand sentinel. Weather-beaten residents, American flags, and roadkill complete this tableau of American decline.
The Appalachian Mountains stretch over 3,000 kilometers from Newfoundland south to Alabama, with the heart of the region encompassing West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. These areas offer little agricultural potential and feature small communities dotted with numerous churches, including congregations that incorporate snake handling into their worship services. The infrastructure remains woefully inadequate, with the exception of the railway network that serves the coal industry.
Coal mining has defined the region's economy and tragedy for generations. The industry employs underpaid workers, often Irish, Italian, African American, and local residents who extract wealth that rarely benefits their communities. As Po Tidholm notes in the book's accompanying text, these areas are "deprived of the right to exist for their own sake and very seldom allowed to benefit from the riches generated by their raw materials" – a critique of capitalism that, while predictable, remains accurate.
The statistics paint a grim picture of the industry's human cost. Nearly 70,000 workers have died in American coal mines over the past 130 years. While 150,000 people worked in the mines during the mid-20th century, automation has reduced that number to just 15,000 today. According to Tidholm, these remaining workers wait for better days to return and for abandoned streets to fill again, hoping that solar and wind energy will prove to be dead ends – a hope unlikely to be fulfilled.
The region faces multiple challenges beyond economic decline. Educational levels remain low, poverty persists at plateau levels, drugs have become part of daily life, and digitalization has yet to make significant inroads. The natural environment bears the scars of extraction, as companies prefer to blow off entire mountaintops rather than tunnel into them to reach coal seams.
One particularly striking photograph captures an approaching train with red lights at a railroad crossing. A wooden ruin that was once a house stands to the left, while what appears to be smoke from a massive explosion rises in the background – though closer inspection reveals it's merely tree crowns in the mist. The landscape and civilization's scars create an atmosphere of foreboding that permeates the entire collection.
Despite the region's struggles, Appalachia gave birth to bluegrass music nearly a century ago as a distinct genre of American roots music. This musical tradition represents what scholars describe as "a kaleidoscope of cultural influences, a reflection of social change, and a platform for political statements." Lundström credits this music with opening his path to the Appalachians and helping him understand the region. Consequently, his photographs feature people with banjos alongside those carrying weapons, capturing both the cultural richness and underlying tensions of Appalachian life.
The "Overburden" collection ultimately presents a complex portrait of American decline and resilience, where communities maintain their cultural identity despite economic devastation and environmental destruction. Lundström's stylized approach may border on artifice, but it succeeds in making visible a region often overlooked by mainstream America.
