I first met Ken Hassell in 2002 (or was it 2003?), when he called our photography department out of the blue and ask if he could visit Virginia Intermont College and show some work in progress. He appeared to us much the same way, I think, as he must have appeared to the people of Dante, when first asking if he could photograph there. And like those people, we had a gut instinct that told us to invite this fellow in, that here was something real – someone we should get to know.

 

In editing the soundtrack of this website/podcast, I imagined the snippets of sound that I was connecting as coal cars, winding through the mountains, pulled along by the stories of his experiences, but heavy, like the coal, and like the coal full of pain and promise.

 

 

—Joe Champagne, Photography Editor, NR

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