The first is entitled "Dead Deer, Point Pleasant, West Virginia, 2010." (Photo by Joshua Dudley Greer)
JOHNSON CITY, TN – Photographs by East Tennessee State University faculty member Joshua Greer are featured in the National Public Radio Web site blog, "The Picture Show."
His photographs illustrate the current blog post by Claire O'Neill entitled "Welcome To The "TNT Area,' Home Of The Mothman."
This article describes an area north of Point Pleasant, W.Va., which was dubbed the "TNT Area" due to its use during the World War II era as an ammunition manufacturing and storage center. "For safety reasons, the explosives were stored in bunkers - or igloos - strategically scattered across the territory and disguised by a thick layer of earth," O'Neill writes. After the war, she explains, the area was converted to use as a wildlife management area and landfill, but the old explosives remain; the site is "on a federal list of hazardous waste sites eligible for cleanup."
Over the course of three years, Greer has photographed the landscape of the area, and the article features his images of the igloo entrances and describes his work methods.
Greer is a visiting assistant professor of photography in the ETSU College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Art and Design. He holds a master of fine arts degree with distinction from the University of Georgia's Lamar Dodd School of Art in Athens and a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
Greer has won numerous awards for his photography, and his works have been exhibited at galleries locally and nationally, including the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. He has also had photographs published in Smithsonian magazine, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Photographer's Forum magazine, and Now & Then, the Appalachian magazine published by the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at ETSU.
O'Neill's blog and Greer's photography may be viewed on the NPR Web site at http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2012/01/23/145334460/welcome-to-the-tnt-area-home-of-the-mothman. Greer's Web site is located at http://jdudleygreer.com.
