BENNINGTON — Twenty-one years ago, in the summer of 2000, two seasoned photojournalists — a father and daughter — came to North Bennington to shoot a day in the life of the village, using guided self-portraits with an old fashioned air bulb shutter release to fire off a digital camera.
They shot in black and white between sun up and sun down on a Saturday, printed and framed the show overnight and opened it to the community the next day. They had received a grant from the Fund For North Bennington to cover the costs of the project, including the 35 prints they would display. Seven years later, the Fund for North Bennington invited them back to do another round of portraits. And then seven years later, they came back again. This month, they returned for a fourth shoot, capping a town tradition that will span 21 years.
“This summer marks a full generation of people and places from North Bennington that we’ve photographed,” said Jay Paris, photographer-turned-documentary filmmaker.
“Not only have children grown and middle-aged residents become elderly, a gas station became a restaurant, a bakery became a hair salon, and it has gone, reflecting the industrious nature of keeping small towns alive,” added daughter Sophie Paris, a former United Nations photographer.
Several hundred town residents attended the first show, curious to examine the extensive portraits of themselves and each other, as if looking in a broad mirror. They included a volunteer fireman, a banker, the postmaster, a builder of hot rods, a priest, boys who were fishing at a watering hole, a barkeeper, a beekeeper and a college president.
“The faces and storefronts have aged but a lot of the same characters prevail,” Jay Paris said. “The population in 2000 was about 1,650. The population today is about 1,650.”
What links the photos is a spirit of commitment to a place that offers community as it has since 1793 when a salt-glazed stoneware factory was erected along a small river that ebbs through the village. The people who came to North Bennington were willing to labor hard for a living. They still do.
The show is open to the public and on view till Aug. 28 at the Left Bank Gallery, 5 Bank St., North Bennington. Gallery hours are by appointment: rhondaratray@gmail.com
