THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411110130
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TERESA ANNAS
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
BRIAN BEACHUM PULLED a photograph from several stacks in the dining room of his Norfolk home. It was a black-and-white image of the old-timey Roseland movie house in Onancock on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Over the theater entrance, welcoming words had been neatly painted, probably decades earlier.
``Best People on Earth Walk Through These Doors: Our Customers.''
And ``If When You Pass You Cannot Stop, Smile As You Go By.''
The photograph is part of Beachum's ``Vanishing American Icons'' series, begun in 1989.
The theaters, diners, general stores and '50s hamburger joints he photographed represent for him ``an era of personal contact and service. If you went to the local lunch counter, you knew the waitress, and she would talk to you. At the gas station, you knew the attendants.
``That personal contact has vanished, somewhat.''
Beachum traveled all over America in search of his endangered icons, heading into the wilds of Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina and, of course, Hampton Roads. He photographed as a historian would, with an eye to recording as much of the environment as possible. He never used a flash, even in the darkest of taverns, in an effort to be true to a place.
His equipment was well-matched to the project. Each photo was taken with a large-format, 4 x 5 camera, the sort of folding wooden field camera that Ansel Adams used.
Fifty photographs from the series, begun in 1989, are on view through Dec. 4 at Old Dominion University Gallery in Norfolk. The show was curated by Linda McGreevy, a critic and associate professor of art at ODU.
At last week's opening, more than 300 patrons stopped by for the reception, where Moon Pies, donuts and coffee were served.
Crowds came and went all night, checking out the pictures and reading the text installed by many of them. Through the night, Beachum's suggestion box for other such sites he might document began to fill. By Sunday night, he had 30 new ideas.
On Friday, he'll have yet another audience for his work, and perhaps obtain even more icon recommendations. At 5:30 p.m., a dozen images from the same series go on view at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Newport News.
His show is one of four solo exhibits with an ``Interiors'' theme. (Also showing at the Peninsula are photographer Anne Peterson, who documented life at her grandmother's house; painter Peter Paul Connolly, whose ``Cabin Fever'' series was inspired by old photos he found in a log cabin; and painter Valerie Hardy, a teacher and art curator at the College of William and Mary.)
The project got started in 1989, a year after Beachum purchased the field camera. He enrolled in a photography class at Thomas Nelson Community College in Newport News, to have access to the equipment needed to process and print photos made with the rare camera.
Then the class was assigned to create a body of work on a theme.
``So I came up with `Vanishing American Icons.' And the project is not finished yet.''
You'd expect a project like this to be concocted by an older person, remembering the good old days. But Beachum's just 40. He chalks it up to a youth spent in Hampton, which he described as ``not exactly a cutting-edge place.''
He's bound to have a little nostalgia in him. His two-story Cape Cod house with picket fence in Cromwell Farms is an awful lot like the home he grew up in, he admits.
For his purposes, Beachum defines icons as universally recognizable structures - like diners and soda fountains - that are reminders of a bygone time of warm, human contact paired with business.
But how to find these places? He started by studying regional maps from the '40s and '50s, looking for the pre-interstate main roads that had become byways. One such path was U.S. Route 60, the fastest way to travel from the Peninsula to Richmond before Interstate 64 was built, he said.
He didn't have to hunt for the three Norfolk sites he photographed: Donut Dinette on Colley Avenue, Doumar's on Monticello Avenue and Central Grocery on Tidewater Drive. In his hometown of Hampton, he shot a hamburger joint called Smitty's that dates to the '50s.
His most recent pictures were taken at the Blue Star Diner in Newport News. The ordeal he went through a few weeks ago at the Blue Star is typical of his process:
Late morning, Beachum strolls in and finds the manager, asking permission to set up his big camera on a tripod. He explains the series. Fine, says the manager.
So Beachum cases the joint, choosing his angle. He rigs his camera to a cable release, so he can shoot without being behind the lens. Then he orders a cup of coffee and waits. Soon, the lunch crowd begins filtering in.
It's a kind of visual ventriloquism. But Beachum knows how much is in the picture frame. He's just waiting for the right moment.
``I'm not concentrating on people. I want to see the place,'' he notes.
These remnants of Americana are fading like old snapshots left out on a sunlit formica table.
Since Beachum started the series, he said, ``some of these places have already vanished.''
Central Grocery, which he photographed a couple of years ago, recently closed. Also, Eischen's, billed as the oldest continuously operating bar in Oklahoma, burned down after Beachum photographed its macho, animal trophied interior a few years back. Eischen's has since been rebuilt.
``And my pictures are hanging in the new bar,'' he said.
Hours at ODU Gallery, 765 Granby St., are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Closed Thanksgiving weekend. Free. Call 683-2845 or 683-5571.
The Peninsula Fine Arts Center is at 101 Museum Drive, Newport News. The reception is free and open to the public. The ``Interiors'' exhibits continues through Jan. 15. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. Open Mondays Dec. 5, 12 and 19. Free. 596-8175. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
``Dari Dreme, Chincoteague,'' a photograph by Brian Beachum.
by CNB