Search For Meaning in the Mountains & Hollers of Hancock County, Tennessee
September 9, 2025
The Real Story is Still Unknown.
You can’t drive through Newman’s Ridge, you can only drive to it. I first came to this hilltop sanctuary tucked into the mountains of Hancock County, Tennessee, with my then boyfriend, now-husband. Right after we met, he told me that he was Melungeon. We started visiting his family just as I was losing mine. My second sister would soon succumb to cancer, and I was drawn to this entire community of people who are connected to each other. I became enamored with the land and the ways of those who chose to stay here. Feeling untethered myself, exploring this community was an existential experience from the beginning.
Dating back hundreds of years, the Melungeons descended from an undetermined range of ethnicities that might have included Africans, Native Americans, Northern Europeans, Moors, Portuguese, Turks, and Jews. Mostly, they were known as “free people of color” who settled in Southern Appalachia. Their reclusivity made them easy targets for rumors and racism.
I was so anxious to understand this complicated and mysterious people that I applied for and received a Guggenheim fellowship. This enabled me to purchase a small camper, rent a vacant lot in the middle of Sneedville, Tennessee, and live in the community on and off for three years. From my little homestead, I’d venture out on foot to meet and photograph the people and the town.
Many folks were apprehensive and suspicious at first, but with time and persistence, doors began to open.
What I also discovered was that after 40 years of my practice, I am still photographing myself. My first project, “Sharon,” was about a little girl who lived down the street from me while I was attending college — or so I thought. Here, in Sneedville, I found Aibrianna. She, along with her two sisters, have become the protagonists of this story and another reflection of my life.
Now, nearing the end of the project, I find not only my initial intentions expanding, but I see elements of that difficult time I was experiencing with the loss of my sibling so fresh on my heart — the apprehension of a community toward a stranger with a camera and my need to find meaning in the face of mortality.
In the broader world, the resurgence of white supremacy and nationalism makes the story of the Melungeons even more poignant. I hope these photographs convey the haunting beauty of their hard existence, the tenacity of people descended from those who belonged but were never welcomed. Theirs is a story that challenges ideas of racial purity and perhaps reflects the true America, where not everything is black and white. ◊
Tamara Reynolds is a documentary photographer whose unflinching eye focuses on the lives of those who are usually unseen. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, NBC News, Bloomberg, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. She teaches photography at Belmont and Vanderbilt universities. She lives in Nashville and has lived there all her life.
