Andrew (André) Stern, born in Munich Germany in 1931, worked as a documentary photographer in the late fifties and early sixties. Later he became an award winning broadcast journalist and documentary producer for ABC News and PBS. He taught at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley for 25 years, where he inaugurated the broadcast journalism and photography programs.

The Appalachia portfolio was shot in Whitesburg and Harlan County, Kentucky over a three year period. The photographs were widely displayed, and Stern produced a PBS documentary using the images and sound interviews. The broadcast was nominated for an Emmy.

Stern used a Nikon F1, a Rollei, plus X and Tri X film. The negatives were scanned with an Imacon Photo Scanner, carbon ink prints were made on an Epson 3800 with archival Innova Fiba-print Gloss paper.