28-JUL-2015
Hall of Christ, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
Dozens of lectures are open to all Chautauqua participants every day. They are given in venues of various sizes, ranging from Chautauqua’s 5,000-seat amphitheater to this elegant structure – a former church converted to a lecture hall. Known as the Hall of Christ, this church was built in 1909, and today it is used to host classes, workshops, and lectures. It is also used for Catholic services on Sundays. While its huge classical pillars were intended to inspire respect and awe, this Chautauqua participant incongruously uses one of them for casual foot support as she scans her cell phone prior to a lecture.
28-JUL-2015
Friendship, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
Eleven religious denominations maintain houses at Chautauqua. They offer religious services, lectures, and low cost housing to participants during the nine-week season. Several of these houses feature large clay sculptures of celebratory figures in their front yards. I moved in on one of these figures to emphasize the texture and detail of its highlighted outstretched hand. I used spot metering to expose for the hand, causing a figure in the background to fall into shadow. The linked figures symbolize the nature of friendship and harmony.
29-JUL-2015
Twins, Bestor Plaza, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
This bronze fountain, featuring two young children at play with a sea creature, now stands in the very heart of Chautauqua – before the Visitors Center in Bestor Plaza. It was originally installed at Norton Memorial Hall in 1929, but was moved to Chautauqua’s central plaza in the 1940s. I was told that the children who modeled for the sculptor were twins. Officially known as the Norton Memorial Fountain, some locals simply refer to it as “The Twins.” I moved in on the figures to emphasize the strikingly incongruous effect of oxidation on their features.
27-JUL-2015
Central Fountain, Bestor Plaza, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
Bestor Plaza honors the memory of Arthur Bestor, who served as the president of the Chautauqua Institute from 1915 to 1944. This fountain, which stands in the center of the plaza, was installed two years after his death. A four-sided column in the center of the fountain displays four bas-relief panels symbolizing the primary fields of study at Chautauqua: religion, knowledge, art, and music. I moved around the entire fountain to study the effect of light and shadow – photographing the panels individually and in pairings. This pairing, which compares the shadowy figure of “music”
to the powerfully defined symbol of “knowledge,” allowed me to make the most out of the play of light. I chose to render the image in black and white because it eliminates the distracting green foliage in the background, and allows us to concentrate on the idea I am expressing here – music as a subtle but essential component of knowledge itself.
30-JUL-2015
Frances Willard Cottage, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
In the summer of 1874, a group of woman came to Chautauqua to discuss the “scourge of alcohol.” They decided to form the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Among them was Frances E. Willard, an educator who served as WCTU president from 1879 to her death in 1898. She built it into the largest organization of women in 19th century America. Over the next nineteen years, Willard became one of the most famous women the country, gaining enough political clout to lead the fight for women’s rights, suffrage, prison reform, equal pay, federal aid to education, vocational training, and an eight-hour working day. Willard used the house in this photograph as her summer cottage at Chautauqua. The house, built in 1882, overlooks Lake Chautauqua. Preservation of Victorian houses such as this one has given Chautauqua much of its character. In 1924, the WCTU purchased it to mark its 50th anniversary. It is privately owned today. I photographed it in the early morning as the rising sun illuminated its elaborately carved main gable and the gingerbread rails on its balconies. I include the massive drinking water fountain in the foreground -- an appropriate symbol of the WCTU’s preference for water over liquor.
29-JUL-2015
Grant and Edison slept here (but not together); The Miller Cottage, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
This cottage was the summer residence of Chautauqua’s co-founder, Lewis Miller. The oldest permanent building at Chautauqua, the cottage was prefabricated in Akron, Ohio, and shipped to Chautauqua. It was reassembled just in time to host the President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, in 1875. The rustic cottage overlooked the site of Chautauqua’s original amphitheater and tented campgrounds, now called Miller Park. For many summers it also housed famed inventor Thomas Edison and his wife, Mina – the daughter of Lewis Miller. Mina, who lived until 1947, became a Chautauqua trustee. In 1922, she renovated the home, opening its interior spaces to her expansive private gardens. It is still owned by the Miller family. This image features the Miller Cottage as the focal point of an atmospheric landscape. I use the early morning light to lead the eye from the illuminated trees at left towards the softly glowing balcony on the second floor of the cottage. I made this image to express a passage through time, carrying us back to Chautauqua’s origins.
30-JUL-2015
Easy Living, South Lake Drive, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
The wicker rocking chair is an enduring symbol of summer’s past. I found this one on the porch of a handsomely preserved Victorian home on South Lake Drive, overlooking Lake Chautauqua. This image goes beyond the chair itself. The plaque hanging on the shingles behind it tells us that this “cottage” has hosted visiting Chautauqua participants for 127 years. An arch at the entry to the porch casts its curving shadow on the wall as well, echoing the graceful curve at the top of the plaque. The early morning light enriches the color and adds warmth to this nostalgic image of easy living.
27-JUL-2015
And end and a beginning, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
Although I made this image just after dawn on my first morning at Chautauqua, I use it here as the final image of this gallery because it best symbolizes not only the end of my own journey to Chautauqua, but also the promise of a place rich in possibilities. The boats lying silently at dock on Lake Chautauqua have yet to set sail. I waited for a man taking his early morning walk to move into the small space between the boats and the large tree, and only then did I make this image. Caught in this spot, he walks alongside of glowing road. A rising sun gilds the sky and the water. The repeating vertical rhythms created by the masts and trees echo his own verticality. This incongruously small figure, juxtaposed against this vast landscape, symbolizes everyone who has enjoyed the pleasures of this place over the last 141 years.