Nathan W. Armes

The smokestacks of the Kingston Fossil Plant, managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the town of Kingston, TN have dominated the small town's skyline since the 1950s.

The plant burns about 14,000 tons of coal a day. Roane County, TN.

Quaking light spills through the leaves of my neighbor's aspen tree, gently casting their mark on a topographic map of Macon County, NC.

The light and shadows remind that home is as close as you believe it to be. My plans to revisit my Like An Echo project is on hold for only the foreseeable future. In the meantime, I've been spending time going back through edits and notes looking for lost threads.

Outtakes from the most recent edit of Like An Echo. Some of these are beloved but just did not fit the narrative I was trying to say at the moment. I’m sure, as this project evolves and grows in physical and emotional scope, one or two might make a return, trading spots with just as meaningful but more suited pieces.

Proud to announce my photo on the cover of the recent anthology Appalachian Reckoning. The photo was taken while working in conjunction with Looking At Appalachia and on my long-term personal project Like An Echo. Appalachian Reckoning was published in response to J.D. Vance’s #1 New York Times Bestseller Hillbilly Elegy.

My grandparents worked two shifts in the now-demolished Burlington hosiery mill, my grandmother took the later shift so she could fish in the mornings, and my grandfather tackled assigned shifts and picked up all the hours his body would allow.

Growing up in a military family was an adventure. Endless highway miles and countless hours watching the country rush past was the norm. Days Inn parking lots stretch big and broad across this great land. My grandparents, we called them mam-maw & pap-paw, lived in the house pictured above and would stay up to greet us at the door. It usually played out the same.

The smokestacks of the Kingston Fossil Plant, managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the town of Kingston, TN have dominated the small town's skyline since the 1950s.

There are hidden valleys and hidden coves among the folds of the great hills where a man can catch a glimpse of Eden.

My pap-paw Pete Armes, 91, gets a haircut from lifetime Franklin, North Carolina resident Ronnie Dills. Dills has been cutting hair for 45 years, 43 in this location and generations of residents have pulled up a seat for a trim.