Becky and Lewie Card invite you to experience a kickoff to the 2021 Christmas season in the charming town of Dunlap, Tenn on Saturday, December 4. The revitalization of this historic small town has been a project of love for the Cards. They started out by buying the original Dunlap Mercantile building in the center of the once beating heart of downtown Dunlap. They have lovingly restored the interior and preserved the outer brick shell of the only building left after a fire devastated the town at the turn of the century.
​
Starting at noon and going until 8 p.m., this celebration will include all manner of festivities. The Mercantile will be open for Christmas shopping! There are lots of ideas for gifts, including Red Ryder BB guns, fancy and not-so-fancy boots, Western jackets and dusters, great silver and beaded jewelry, overalls (some with “Hee Haw” themed pictures), all the way down to vintage stocking stuffers. The Hat Bar stocks authentic Stetson hats and a large selection of vintage hats. They can be customized with handcrafted hatbands that are as ornate as you wish. Initials can be branded inside or out, as well. What a great gift!

Mama Tried, a food truck, will be in full swing, offering soup and sandwiches. The Yard, an open-air music venue, will be open for hot chocolate, and a jolly Santa Clause (who sounds a lot like Lewie) will be visiting with children and adults alike! Ho-Ho-Ho! What fun! The actual parade will start at 4 p.m. on Cherry Street.
This is also a celebration of the one-year anniversary of the Mercantile, which, after about 120 years, is now a clothing store, soda fountain, coffee and snack bar, local history museum, music venue, event space, chapel and prayer room. And, once a month, it’s also a church.

To Becky, the entire project is a “God thing.” While driving in Florida, Becky said, “I just felt a tugging on my heart that we needed to do something for my little hometown.” And, after careful prayer, the couple is renovating Dunlap building by building.

Becky Hatfield Card grew up in Dunlap, loving the beauty of the countryside of Sequatchie County. Her dad was a pharmacist and avid hunter, fisherman and country music lover, and Becky grew up loving that genre of music. In fact, Becky met Dolly Parton when she was 10, and her dad fished with Porter Wagoner.

Becky had a dental practice in this little town for over 20 years, and Lewie is retired but is still CEO of Card Monroe Corp. He owns property in beautiful Sequatchie County and has enjoyed hunting and fishing here all of his life. They are both committed to this project, as are more than one resident. Dunlap’s Cody McCarver, formerly of Confederate Railroad, has partnered with the Cards in the resurrection of this charming town.

Come on to Dunlap, not just for the parade and festivities but anytime. It’s a beautiful drive and a step back in time, as well as a breath of fresh air. Come take an afternoon to savor the memories of yesteryear.
Stay tuned about this project in an upcoming issue of the Mountain Mirror.

by Judy Rowland

​Some people have called me an artist. Yes, I sell my paintings but I am not sure that makes me an artist. I cannot draw a straight line nor have I had any formal art education. Furthermore, I have also looked at artwork that makes me certain that I do not understand art. How could someone take a porcelain urinal from a plumbing supply store and sign it R Mutt and consider it art? Duchamp did just that in April 1917, and the urinal is now valued at 2 million dollars. How could someone drip paint from a paint can onto a canvas set out on a floor, push the paint around with trowels and sticks and call the work art? Critics explained that Jackson Pollock’s new art forms were seen “as suggesting the life-force in nature and man’s entrapment.” To me, they looked like something a toddler could do. His works are now valued at between 12 and 18 million dollars. His most expensive work was priced at 140 million in 2006. Determining what is a masterpiece is a personal choice.

In many ways, much abstract art and contemporary art is “Off The Beaten Track.” When people don’t immediately recognize an object, they are pushed from their comfort zones. Some people hate contemporary art, others love it, and yet even more people feel baffled by it. Abstract art makes us more curious and forces us to wander beyond the traditional path.

Within Chattanooga, we have a fairly wide variety of galleries. I have not written about any of them in the past because I assumed many residents are familiar with Gallery 1401, In-Town Gallery, The River Gallery, Area 61 and others. However, amongst these galleries, there are distinct differences. Some carry more abstract work, others representational and others only local works. 

Most recently I went to Stove Works and wondered if yet again I would be perplexed by the contemporary exhibits. On arrival, I came to the receptionist with platinum blonde hair and a pink sweater who seemed to be snoozing on the job. I immediately relaxed. If an overtired teenager was sleeping on the job, I need not worry about being out of my element. I clearly was more on my game than she was. 

BUT I WAS NOT. With a soft voice, I asked for her help. Nothing. I wondered if I should tap her on the shoulder. Would I be rude? I kept my distance. I had to respect social distancing. Finally, I used a loud voice. Nothing. Then I realized the joke was on me; I had been trying to communicate with a manikin! Smiling, I led myself into the main exhibit hall, which was like nothing I have seen in Chattanooga. This venture was be fun.

The main exhibit hall features 26 pieces, and many, if not most of them, had me asking questions. My first stop, Dylan Spaysky’s “Gringo,” was a 7-foot assemblage of wicker, frame and sunglasses. Playful and thought provoking, the work brought forth memories of the happy go lucky scarecrow in the “Wizard of Oz.” While turning from “Gringo,” I nearly tripped over Johanna Keefe’s “A Vehicle for Butter,” an oversized cooked lobster carrying a stick of butter on his back. Then I looked up to see Rose Nestler’s oversize torso of a woman in a violet collared jacket with irregularly shaped orchid breasts resembling the horns of a bull. The whimsy, playfulness, boldness and creative energy of so many works lightened my heart. I felt a bit as if I was in a “fun house.”

Not all the work was uplifting. In a side room, the “Duality” exhibit provided several somber works. One piece, by artist Rondell Crier, was a long sort of mobile extending over the length of the room. From individual strings, he had hung separate gravestones with the names of homicide victims in Chattanooga. Glass pendants between the stones separated the victims by the year of death. The graves had little maps indicating the location of the murder. Crier’s impactful work reminded me of a somber version of Matthew Dutton’s “Mumurations” piece at the Edwin Hotel. Feeling cheered from the main exhibit, I immediately closed in on my thoughts with the Duality exhibit. The work defines the word dumbfounding.

Stove Works is not just a gallery or a workspace for residential artists. It is not in the business of selling art as much as it in providing opportunities for new artists. As director and founder Charlotte Caldwell explained, “We are not motivated by the sale of work but rather the conversation that drives the piece.” While the atmosphere in some art galleries tend to be accompanied by hushed voices, Stove Works encourages a different and refreshing new dialogue.

For the neophyte art appreciator, Stove Works is a wonderful start. Clearly open to new ideas and welcoming a dynamic process, everyone and anyone is free to engage with the work. If perplexed by a supposed inability to appreciate art, one needs to go to Stove Works. Abstract art aficionados and those lacking any training are equally welcome. Go to Stove Works. You might laugh or you might cry, but you will not be disappointed. 

Stove Works is located at 250 E. 13th Street, Chattanooga, TN 37408. Open 12-6:30 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, it is open to the public and free of charge.

by Robin Howe

A special holiday read to enjoy is  “Hello Chattanooga: Famous People Who Have Visited the Tennessee Valley” by legendary Channel 3 anchor David Carroll.
​
The volume is a compendium of the many celebrities who have visited our area over the last 115 years. It is a thoroughly researched book detailing the thousands of celebrities who have performed or visited here at numerous venues, including Lake Winnie!

The celebrities included are from various professional backgrounds including sports, politics, entertainment, military and other arenas. For example, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were both struck out by a female pitcher in Chattanooga. The annual March of Dimes telethon held at the Memorial Auditorium is particularly memorable. Many musical videos and movies were filmed here, including “42” in which the late Chadwick Boseman portrayed Jackie Robinson.

Especially interesting is the list of well-known celebrities with local connections, including Leslie Jordan, Samuel L. Jackson, Dolly Parton and Allison Krauss. The volume is a comprehensive treatment of our local history. The book is a wonderful collection with lists of names, dates and venues.

“We’ve hosted the stars of the Metropolitan Opera and the stars of the Grand Ole Opry. The Prince of Prussia has visited, as have the Dukes of Hazard,” says Carroll.

Two of the things I personally remember are performances by the Ballet De Russe De Monte Carlo and the Metropolitan Opera as a child at the Memorial Auditorium and the Tivoli, respectively. My introduction to Broadway musicals was through enjoying traveling productions that came to Chattanooga.

This is the complete package. Not only is it a thoroughly researched catalogue of the people who have visited the Tennessee Valley, but it’s also a delightful piece of local history. David Carroll has done it again: entertained, educated and enlightened. David Carroll is a wonderful author with several books to his credit. This book will make a marvelous holiday gift to give and to receive.   

by Sonia Young

​Leave it to Benjamin Franklin to come up with the idea.  A man of many talents - ambassador and scientist, printer and philosopher, bon vivant and inventor - many of his ideas and inventions, such as the bifocal, are still in use, for which we continue to bless him today. Another was his proposal to the Junto Club, a group of tradesmen pursuing the betterment of themselves and society. Franklin proposed they bring books they could “best spare” from their personal collections to be circulated among the members. Called a subscription library, each paid a fee to participate and help build a collection by buying new books. “For want of better care,” after a year “each took his [own] books home,” he wrote, though they continued to buy and share new ones.
​
While libraries have existed since 700 B.C.E., they were closed to the “common folk,” to protect the books which were handmade and to control the populace. Those in charge understood the power of knowledge. Only the privileged, the wealthy, the churchman, and the scholar had access. The printing press in 1450 made books more available and libraries more common, but Franklin’s was the first to allow ordinary people to take books home, the first small step toward what would become a fundamental American institution: the public library.

However, it would be another 100 years before a library truly became public. In 1833, Peterborough, N.H., opened the first library funded by a town and “open to all classes of the community” without restriction or fees. Other towns slowly followed suit, but we have socially conscious women and a “robber baron” to thank for the growth of free public libraries.

Andrew Carnegie began educating himself in Scotland in the Tradesman’s Subscription Library his father had founded. After his family emigrated to Pennsylvania, he borrowed books from the personal library of Col. John Anderson, who opened it to his workers every Saturday. Industrious, ambitious, and reputedly unscrupulous, Carnegie became one of the richest men in American history and one of our greatest philanthropists. He believed in helping working people who were “anxious to help themselves” as he had been helped and wanted to provide opportunity for others “to acquire the knowledge to be successful.” The first of the Carnegie libraries opened in Braddock, Penn., in 1889, near one of his mills. By 1929 there were more than 800 of them worldwide and nearly 1,700 in the United States.

Nearly 80 percent of those 1,700 libraries resulted from the efforts of women’s clubs of the 1890s through the 1920s. Working at the local level, they raised funds and petitioned the Carnegie Foundation for grants, which required public support for any library it endowed - a financial commitment from the community to maintain and operate it. This, Carnegie believed, would prevent the “public from ceasing to take interest in it.”

Thus, Chattanooga’s first library was built and opened in 1906 with a $50,000 Carnegie grant. Designed by New York architect Stanford White, the stately building still stands at the corner of 8th and Georgia. The library relocated in 1940, and the Community Chest, YMCA, and other groups and businesses occupied it over the years. It was known for some time as the George H. Patten Building and is now owned by Cumberland Trust and Guaranty.

Volunteers in Signal Mountain were actively involved in developing libraries even before its own was opened. In 1920, they hosted 100 librarians from seven states for the organizational meeting of the Southeastern Library Association (SELA). Three more meetings were held on the mountain; in 1922, they discussed library services for African Americans and training facilities for black librarians.  (Carnegie libraries did not serve black patrons in the South, but the Foundation endowed separate libraries for them.) In 1924 and 1926, SELA took up promotion of library development in the region, standards for school libraries, and standards for degrees in librarianship.

The first public library opened in Signal Mountain Grammar School in 1926, again organized and operated by volunteers. It remained there until 1954, when the old post office building on James Boulevard became available. In 1970, it was moved to its present location on James Avenue, where it was “housed in a house” and quickly became overcrowded. Karin Glendenning, who volunteered there, remembers, “We had books stored in a bathroom, on a shelf laying across top of the tub.” It took another 17 years, but in 1987, with donations from mountain residents and funds from the Town, the house became a home to David Dolan (who bought it, then had it moved it to James and Cauthen Way) and the present library building was constructed. It operates as a department of the Town of Signal Mountain and is funded by the property taxes and donations of Signal Mountain residents.

The mountain’s little gem of a library thrives for three reasons: community support; devoted volunteers; and a dedicated director. One of Signal’s own, the director Karin Smith Glendenning grew up in the town and attended Signal Mountain Elementary (as did her mother, who was in the original first grade class of SM Grammar School in 1926). After graduating from GPS, she majored in French at Wesleyan College in Macon. Later, with her late husband Lou Glendenning and children, she made their home in Signal Mountain, and Lou worked with Karin’s father, Alfred Smith, at his store, Hardie and Caudle. Her father also served as police and fire commissioner and the Signal Mountain mayor.

Perhaps she was destined to end up in a library. “I love reading so much,” Karin said, recalling her favorite book “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which she read as a girl. “The study hall was held in the library, and the librarian knew how much I loved to read, so she let me ... I’ve reread it several times. Something about the idea of escaping like that, the excitement of it ...” Her wide smile said it all.

Life led her to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in the mid-1980s, where she was book editor, then community news editor. Library director followed in 2006. As patron Nancy Williams said, “She’s just done a wonderful job; she’s gotten so many new books and is so willing to help people. If someone wants a book we don’t have, she orders it for them.” The collection includes e-books and Audibles (both quite expensive to provide), CDs, new releases, magazines, journals, and other reference materials, including the Tennessee Electronic Library, which contains dozens of databases not typically accessible to individuals and extremely useful for research.

In 2019, a fundraising campaign began to expand the existing building, and construction has already begun. “The money has come entirely from community donations,” Karin said.  “This community really supports us and we are so appreciative of their generosity.” The project includes an elevator to reach the lower floor, an emergency ramp for access to the parking lot, a beautiful extension from the first floor with fireplace and large windows for reading, researching, or just gazing out at the trees. The room will provide cover for the patio downstairs, with a second fireplace and overhead lighting, creating another space for reading or gathering.  Karin had high praise for the ongoing assistance of Jessica Stack and Craig Peavey, the local architects on the project.

Four library staffpersons work with Karin: John Atkinson, assistant librarian; Laura Wooden; Lisa Garbee; and Kathy Rupe. Volunteers, who donate hours of time, are vital to every library. “We couldn’t function without our volunteers,” Karin said. The Friends of the Library, an organizational board, helps raise funds, holds book sales, and maintains the Book Nook. And the Mountain Library Foundation maintains a fund for special needs beyond the usual operating expenses.

In today’s world of increasing access to information, public libraries may seem less necessary. Au contraire. Only 10 percent of the 117,000 libraries in America are public. All the others restrict use and circulation. We actually need more libraries because access to knowledge and information is fundamental to democracy, and libraries are fundamental to access information for many, many people.

Most importantly, libraries are community spaces open to anyone, where everyone is accepted, to sit and dream, to ponder and imagine, to discover and learn, to inhabit other worlds, to be entertained, to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading whatever you like. Its spaces host meetings and book clubs, lectures and educational programs, lost souls and social gatherings.

“The boundary between society and the library is porous,” said Susan Orleans. “Nothing good is kept out of the library, and nothing bad.” In her story “The Library Book,” the L.A. Public Library itself is the hero of the 1986 fire that nearly destroyed it. A million books burned but volunteers transported the water-damaged books to fish processing plants in Long Beach, where they were saved by being packed between frozen shrimp and broccoli florets. “The library,” she says, “requires many people together.”

Maybe the most unlikely proof that libraries are essential is that even prisons have them (though funding them is a low priority). In her memoir “Reading Behind Bars,” prison librarian Jill Grunenwald shows us that people, no matter who, what, or where they are, want to read, learn, improve themselves. “Entertaining and enlightening,” according to one critic, this book gives us “a fresh perspective on why libraries are crucial to society today.”

Whatever form books take in an increasingly digital future, libraries will always be both repositories of past wisdom and places for to explore new possibilities. Of paramount importance to a free country, they must be preserved, protected, and supported.

On the side of a shelf in Signal Mountain Library is this quote from journalist and author Caitlin Moran: “A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life-raft, and a festival.  They are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination. One a cold rainy island, they are the only sheltered places where you are not a consumer, but a citizen instead.”

by Carol Lannon

What happens when Mary Grey Moses, a former Department of Justice civil rights attorney, and Kate Forbes, an award-winning professional actress, team up to serve Chattanooga children? Pure magic! All of us enjoy watching children perform, but this summer The Centenary presented a unique program featuring completely original plays, musicals, songs and poetry created by the students themselves, using a curriculum developed by Chattanooga native Kate Forbes.
​
Mary Grey has served as director of First Centenary United Methodist Church’s outreach program, The Centenary, for community children for 15 years. Last spring, Mary Grey applied for a grant through Bethlehem Center to engage local children, using the arts as a means of helping them recover from what they had lost during the pandemic and other cultural stressors.

Kate Forbes has worked as an actress for decades; on Broadway, off-Broadway, throughout the country and internationally, having recently starred in the Disney hit “Wandavision.” Mary Grey used the grant money to hire Kate, who created a curriculum for First Centenary’s program that incorporated original music, poetry, drama, photography and visual arts, to the delight of the children and their fans.

Mary Grey said, “Kate is amazing. She encouraged the students and gave them the freedom to express themselves from their hearts. They were so proud of what they created that they found the confidence to perform and to share with each other and an audience of parents and other adults. The self-doubt and insecurity bred by a year in isolation was defeated by the strength of the spirit they found in themselves.”

Tristan, a rising fifth-grader at Normal Park Museum Magnet School, enthusiastically explained, “I made the crown and mask, and there were so many materials you could use - feathers, jewels and all kinds of stuff! This [program] is important because this could change Chattanooga and make it a different place! I like how it’s cooperative, and they let you play and work, but they still want to help you focus on your school and your reading. In language arts, they helped with reading skills and grammar, and if there’s a word you don’t know, they can help you. They had us building these cool things with normal materials like cotton balls and popsicle sticks. It made me realize that even though we had to stay six feet apart, we can still be together and do fun things!”

Younger children imagined their own “kingdoms,” creating names for the kingdoms and themselves, and designing beautiful crowns and embellished capes, each as unique as its creator. King Aiden described his kingdom, saying, “There is a zoo with lots of animals. It is famous for its big rose gardens. There are strawberries, chips and grapes. It smells like fluffy cows and has farms with panthers.” His kingdom’s rules were “Don’t bully and everyone has to wear blue shoes.” Mary Grey described the scene, saying, “The early elementary children were proud to parade for parents in their crowns and capes they created as the older kids read about each ruler’s imagined kingdom.”

Experts in mental health and child development say that healthy risk-taking is one of the most powerful ways people can grow, whether it’s learning to swim, ride a bike, or learning a new skill. Research tells us that this kind of healthy risk-taking builds resilience, which is particularly needed for children today who have lived through the upheaval of the past few years.

“Many of the kids have found school to be a place where they ‘make mistakes’ and are often ‘wrong.’ They are afraid of being wrong, uncomfortable with not knowing. In any creative endeavor, this kind of thinking can keep anyone from even trying. In my classes, I stressed that there was no right or wrong, good or bad; there was only effort. Each project began with a set of instructions and materials, and each child created something different. It’s important for them to see this, see that their creativity is unique to them, and has inherent worth,” explained Kate.

The writing projects were very challenging, Kate admitted, adding that she tried to keep them as little like school as she could. “My goal was to help the kids see that words have power, but more specifically, that their own expressions of who they are have power and worth,” Kate said.

“With Shakespeare, who is taught in all kinds of intimidating ways as literature in school, I picked one or two speeches, and we read them aloud as a group repeatedly until we knew (without opening a dictionary) what [the speech] meant. I did the same thing with the young men (seventh and eighth grade boys) with poetry.” Kate whet the young men’s appetite for poetry, exposing them to poets as diverse as Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Billy Collins and even Kobe Bryant with his “Ode to Basketball.” The junior high boys read their poems and performed a song they wrote.

“Many of the projects had several steps requiring patience,” Kate said, adding that sometimes you have to wait for the paint to dry. She stressed to the children that there was no prize for finishing first! When the students encountered the dreaded writers’ block, she encouraged them to have the faith to go ahead put that first mark on the paper, thus eliminating the empty page in front of them. “Acknowledging that beginning is sometimes the hardest. And then, of course, there is follow-through, the finishing,” she said. After the finishing, there was the editing, and the kids made sure their finished projects were exactly how they wanted them to be. Kate typed everything and printed it all out, making the project look “official,” she said.

“My overall goal, besides exposing the kids to different forms of creative self-expression, was to give the kids confidence in their imaginations, and in the individuality of that expression. Our presentation at the end gave each kid an experience of success, of being listened to. I also think the children end up telling us grownups quite a bit about how they view the world, if we listen, Kate said. “So much has been written about the importance of art in education, I don’t think I have anything new to add. Imagination, problem-solving, follow-thru, patience, faith … When collaboration is added to that, as in theater, or a drumming circle, we learn the experience of being part of a whole, of supporting our fellows.”

The students supported and honored each other’s process and presentation. “The older elementary students became playwrights, watching the staff and older kids perform plays they wrote. The high school girls performed a Shakespeare soliloquy as a group. They loved the way Emilia spoke her mind in Othello,” said Mary Grey.

Aline (16, rising junior at CGLA) said, “This year was obviously different, but Miss Kate taught us about Shakespeare and made it fun and I thought, ‘this is interesting!’ She really helped us express ourselves. She was very positive and it was just overall fun!”

Creative thinking, working collaboratively, empathetic listening, planning and executing productions and presentations with multiple steps are all examples of critical thinking skills that will generalize into students’ personal lives and academic work. The students themselves were able to recognize how this program will help them moving forward. While many educators lament the losses students typically suffer over the summer months, it is clear that the students in The Centenary’s program have flourished with the investment of the creative arts program Kate developed and implemented and will enter into the next school year with renewed confidence and creativity.

by Mary Vassar Hitching

From May 21 through September 6, the Hunter will present the stunning exhibition “Power, Passion & Pose: Photographs by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory” featuring nearly 50 photographs capturing the exquisite athleticism of ballet and modern dancers posed in mid-air wearing couture fashion. The exhibit is a joint collaboration among the photographers, dancers, and choreographers who all came together to showcase the blending of fashion and dance. In the interview below, Browar and Ory give Mirror readers an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse into their work.

Q: These photographs are choreographed much like other dance performances. Could you describe your process?
Our process usually begins with meeting the dancers informally and spending some time getting to know them. It’s important for us to find out a bit more of who they are and what they individually would like to achieve with the photographs. We’ve also always done our homework before the photo session; whether by having seen the dancer perform live or having watched videos of him/her dancing.

During the photography session, we spend a lot of time experimenting with what type of imagery we feel is working best. In this initial session, we aren’t worried about achieving a perfect image.  After the first photography session, we review the images with the dancer.  We focus on choosing just a few positions that are working - or maybe elements of them.  Then we will spend time refining the image. For example, we might adjust the lighting, or change things within the pose - perhaps a different arm position, angle or other changes - that will help us achieve the best possible image. It’s important for us to leave the photo session with just a few images we all love, rather than have many that are perhaps just average. We are looking for those really special moments, and when they happen, everyone on the set knows right away.

Q: How do you pair the dancers and the poses? Do you match the dress or clothing to the dancer and then choose the pose? How does that part work?
Every piece of clothing we work with has its own character, mood and way of moving, independent of the dancer. While it is often easier for us to work with basic dance clothing, we love the element fashion brings to the photographs. We wanted to be sure the dancer and the clothing were well matched and that the clothing would complement and work well with the way the dancer looked and moved. It was often hard to control the way the clothes moved, so it could take some time to learn to manipulate the fabric and find the right positions that allowed the clothing to move and would also best express its style.  It was like adding a partner for the dancer, and with any partner you have to practice working together.

Q: How much input do the dancers give to the process? Does their style of dancing inform the style of the shoot?
The dancers absolutely have a lot of input into the process: It is a collaboration between us and the dancer. We always chose dancers that we felt would be creative and would enjoy the collaboration process. Their style of dancing, as well as the unique way each dancer moves, informs every photograph we make.  We also wanted to capture their personality, one that comes through when they perform.

Q: Some of these gowns were difficult to dance and jump in – were there any workarounds to accommodate the dance positions and jumps?
We tried to find clothes that moved well, and the majority of the pieces we used actually allowed for quite a full range of movement. However, this was not always the case. For example, there is a stunning dress that will be at the museum by Marchesa, worn by Gillian Murphy. We could not resist using this amazing dress, but it is tight around the legs, so Gillian focused on upper body movements. Occasionally we encountered these challenges, but mostly we chose clothing that would allow for movement.

Q: What kind of camera or special equipment do you have to use to capture such visual detail in such quick bursts?
We use a Hasselblad, which is a medium format camera. It does not have autofocus or a motor drive and it’s a very basic camera - one that has beautiful lenses. We work very slowly and just work on capturing the moment. For example, when a dancer does a jump, we try to just capture it with one frame at exactly the right time. Working slowly and methodically works best for us, especially as it is a collaboration between several artists.

Q: What’s been the most exciting/unique/challenging shoot you’ve worked on thus far? Or, is there a behind the scenes detail that we haven’t thought to ask about?
There have been many unique and challenging shoots we’ve worked on. The Degas series with Misty Copeland was quite a challenge - we had to recreate famous paintings. It was complicated in both creating the sets for these images, as well as making the images that would have the feeling of a painting. Another photo that was challenging for us was the one of Meaghan Grace Hinkis wearing a dress made of flowers. Meaghan’s mother is a costume designer, and we have a friend who is a creative director with a flower company. Together we all made the dress on Meaghan, which took several hours. The flowers were dying as we were making the dress on her! We really were not certain if the dress would come together until the moment we finally took the photo.  The dress was so heavy that once it was finished on her, Meaghan had a difficult time dancing, and with the flowers dying on us, we only had a few seconds to actually capture the image.

Visit the Hunter to see the amazing photographs discussed above as well as many more in “Power, Passion & Pose: Photographs by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory,” opening May 21, 2021, at the Hunter Museum of American Art.
​
by Cara McGowan