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Show THE HISTORY BLAZER ATEM'S OF UT.. H'S PAST FROM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Gra~ lde Salt Lake City. ZTT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3503 Springville Photographer Elfie Huntington Captured Ordinary People and Things Tm mom B. LEEI JBRARY AT BRIGHAMY OUNOU NIVERhSou~ s es a collection of roughly 20,000 glass plates, nearly all of them portraying ordinary people doing ordinary things. This extensive documentation of Utah and Utahns constitutes most of the life work of Elfie Hunting-ton, a remarkable Springville, Utah, photographer. It is often personal and r e v a g of both subject and photographer. In a 1988 catalog accompanying an exhibition of Huntington's work, Cary Stevens Jones noted that " her autobiography is visual poetry on glass." Huntington was born in Springville on December 29, 1868. A bout with scarlet fever at age four left her deaf and largely mute; later, she became an adept lip- reader. After her mother's death young Elfie was raised by her grandmother and then lived with her uncle, Don C. Johnson, as a teenager. Fortunately for Huntington and posterity, SpringviUe has a long history of support for the arts, and her uncle was sympathetic to artistic inclinations in his niece. He encouraged her to pursue the visual arts, eventually arranging an apprenticeship for her with George Edward Anderson, an established commercial photographer, in 1892. Historians of photography have noted the relatively large number of accomplished female photographers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They suggest that the new medium, generally ke of artistic strictures or a strong male tradition, offered women opportunities unavail-able in other media. From the beginning women have exceled at photography. Elfie began her apprenticeship by retouching Anderson's negatives, eventually learning darkroom techniques and general camera skills. The introduction of dry- plate technology and the development of faster lenses helped free photographers from their bulb old equipment and their subjects from static, unnatural poses. In 1894 Elfie acquired a new small- view camera suitable for album- sized portraits. These innovations allowed her to develop her characteristic candid style. In 1903 Elfie and another assistant, Joseph Bagley , quit Anderson's shop and established their own nearby ( to Anderson's lasting annoyance). The Huntington and Bagley studio on Main Street in Springville eventually offered such services as film finishing, professional portraiture, framing, and a traveling tent gallery. Huntington and Bagley became a well- known team in Utah County and could often be seen traveling in tandem on a motorcycle. They also toured southern Utah and Colorado in the fall to document Indian ruins and offer their tent gallery portrait service in small towns along the way. Huntington's work portrays Springville and its people in a way that few towns have ever been seen. Jones suggests that Huntington moved beyond the ' purely historical or geographical photographs that dominate nineteenth- century photography" to " evoke, suggest, and communicate ( more) complex thoughts and feelings" about life. In so doing, Jones concludes, she ' established herself as one of the most creative and innovative photographers of her time. " A significant number of her photographs depict children, whom she often photographed at play. Jones suggests tha Huntington might have favored children as subjects because she had none of her own. Elfie also displayed remarkable sensitivity and insight in her portraits of " handicapped" subjects, perhaps because of her own personal experiences. But the range of ' the lady photogapher with the raspy voice" exfended to all areas of life, from a Protestant gospel meeting to a drunk asleep under a tree, from a beautiful bride to a group costumed for Halloween. At age 68 Huntington d e d her longtime partner, Joseph Bagley, a widower, but he died a mere six weeks later. Elfie herself survived until July 24, 1949, when she died in a Provo hospital, leaving behind a unique vision of her time and place. See salt Lcrkc Tn'bune, Apil 17, 1988; Cary Stevens Jones, A Woman ' S Eew: 2he Photography of E@ e Huntington ( I868- I949), exhibition catalog for Springville Museum of Art, February 12- March 10, 1988; Springville Herald, July 28, 1949. THE HJSTORYBL AZERi s produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant fiom the Utah Statehood CenteMial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533- 3500. |
