Logan, West Virginia

A few photos that I shot for work earlier this year in southern West Virginia.

I should mention the passing of mountaintop removal activist Larry Gibson, who died suddenly last week. Known to many as the ‘Keeper of the Mountains,’ Gibson worked tirelessly to inform America of surface mining’s devastating effects. In March I chaperoned a group of high school students on a community service trip and Gibson invited us to his property on Kayford Mountain in Kanawha County (above), just as he did for any visitor who wanted to see firsthand the destruction that has become commonplace in Appalachia. I ran into him again in D.C. in June and he was as determined as ever to make his voice heard.

He was 66 years old. More info and a video of him here.