In the fall of 2005, I packed my Jeep Wrangler with pounds of camera equipment, twenty rolls of Kodak 120 roll film, CD cases filled with the best music that the photo students of Grand Valley State University could offer, and my National Geographic Road Map. I began one of the many trips that would turn out to be the most profound educational experience of not only my photographic career, but my life. I was traveling to the Midland Trail, through Southern Appalachia West Virginia, to bring the place that I had so much love and admiration for, back to my professors, peers, friends, and to bring it back for myself.

And this is what I found...