Loose Leaf Notes

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press newspaper on April 26, 2012.

The people of Floyd were documented last Friday and Saturday by Norfolk photographer Glen McClure for an upcoming Jacksonville Center exhibit called A Portrait of Floyd.

Last year Virginia Living magazine featured McClure’s Endangered Species: Watermen of the Chesapeake, a photo series of fishermen portraits that was shown at The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News.  McClure has also done random portraits in Richmond and throughout the state of Virginia, traveling to 12 different locations to photograph people, including Roanoke, said Jacksonville gallery coordinator Lore Deighan.

“He didn’t want this to be a publicity piece or for people to put on their Sunday best,” said Deighan.  McClure is known for capturing the everyday diversity of people in their natural settings. He also does landscape photography.

The bulk of the random photographs of Floyd Countians were taken downtown.  The Friday Night Jamboree produced a guaranteed crowd.   On Saturday McClure, an assistant, Deighan and the Portrait of Floyd curator David Brown traveled to the studios of woodworker Ernest Bryant and artist Charlotte Atkins and fiddle maker Arthur Conner to further the scope of the project.  They also went to Ingram’s gas station and farm supply store and set up at a yard sale next to Slaughters Supermarket.

“We brainstormed about who would not be represented downtown and wanted to reach out to other parts of the county,” said Deighan, who noted that the photographs taken downtown were more diverse than she thought they would be and included people from all walks of life.

Deighan said McClure took upwards of 80 to 100 photographs for the upcoming show, set to open October 5 and run through November 24.  Some background information on each person photographed was taken by McClure’s assistant and will be used to caption the photos.   “Where were you born, what brought you to county, and what do you like about living here?” were some of the questions that the people being photographed were asked.

“The best part of the project so far has been getting to know the people,” said Deighan. She reported that people were hesitant at first to pose, but “once we got talking, they got on board.”

Deighan enjoyed the interaction that the project provided and is looking forward to the seeing the further interaction of the photos when they hang together on the walls of the Hayloft Gallery. “When you don’t know someone, you don’t tend to talk to them.  This reminded me to do that more.  It’s all about community and that’s what the Jacksonville Center is about,” she said.  ~ Colleen Redman