Chad M. Pelton is a Knoxville-based book designer, photographer, and collage artist currently concentrating on three bodies of photo work: Appalachian Vernacular/Landscape, Windows as Eyes to the Soul, and a photo essay based on the poetry of Jesse Graves. Utilizing a Medium Format rangefinder camera and car, Pelton drives the surrounding Appalachian roads making observations of the everyday (objects and places sometimes overlooked) as a means to document our region and its profound effect on the way we live and work. The work illustrates personal stories through landscape, collected objects, refuse, and ephemera.

Pelton has designed books for the University of Tennessee Press, the Knoxville Writers' Guild, and jwlawson Fine Art. His work is held in private collections, has been exhibited in galleries in Milwaukee, New York, and throughout the Appalachian region. His work has also appeared online, and in print via Knoxville alt-weekly the Metro Pulse. Current projects are being documented for publication via his independent publishing house, REFUSE! Brief samples can be viewed online at www.chadpelton.com.