The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Sherman with Hog's Head

1992

Shelby Lee Adams

(American, b. 1950)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 47.1 x 38 cm (18 9/16 x 14 15/16 in.); Paper: 50.6 x 40.1 cm (19 15/16 x 15 13/16 in.); Matted: 71.1 x 55.9 cm (28 x 22 in.)
Gift of Anne S. Leaf 1995.181
Location: Not on view

Description

Shelby Lee Adams sensitively explores the documentary possibilities of photography to evoke the grotesque and the heroic sides of the human condition. A native of eastern Kentucky, Adams has returned annually for more than thirty years to a community long disconnected from mainstream contemporary society, recording the lives and complex culture of the people of the Appalachian Mountains. In Sherman with Hog’s Head, the farmer displays a macabre trophy, the result of his professional labor. His pose is familiar-much like anyone showing off an impressive prize-and the two subjects echo one another, smiling in tandem. Sherman’s candid stare and half-smirk beg the question: who is mimicking whom?
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 81
  • Trophies of the Hunt: Capturing Nature as Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 24-November 3, 2004).
    Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 7/24/04 - 11/3/04. "Trophies of the Hunt: Capturing Nature as Art". No exhibition catalogue.
    CMA, April 7-June 4, 1995: "Shelby Lee Adams Photographs: Appalachian Portraits."
  • {{cite web|title=Sherman with Hog's Head|url=false|author=Shelby Lee Adams|year=1992|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1995.181