Marion Warren: The Eye Of The Beholder

I. Have often thought over the years of what Annapolis what the state of Maryland what the Chesapeake region would be like without someone like Marion ward. I found him to be not only a person of great skill. Of great craftsmanship of wonderfully thoughtful photographs strikingly absorbing photographs but someone who was deeply committed to maintaining that historical memory that was evident in photographs. The curator is lacking. It allowed me to sort of stand back and say what makes this night an interesting thing to do with your father. I mean if. You have character. And it's not easy. I mean top 10 photographers this country.

I just became enamored with his work his personality his community spirit. I really don't think that you can possibly separate the man from that from the photographs as you look at his photographs. They are really two things. They are the people themselves but they also are Marian Warren. It's the eye of the beholder. The sun rises right out there comes up. I can have trouble getting you up for a sunrise. I think you have to understand Marian Warren in the context of Marian and Mary Warren the two together and the children that they produced and in particular the team that I know which is basically Marion. Barry. And Maine. Represents something. Really very important and that is a family that in a loving context really work together

in a professional way to produce something of extraordinary significance for us as Marylanders. And I think for probably in a national context as well I think the whole family is interested was different from anybody I've ever know. Marian is a consummate photographer. His eyes are always thinking for him and her name has done a lot of writing. She is an excellent interview. The story of Mary has backed them up. She's done some good writing too. I've gone through several books. Immediately. We decided that. I might as well. Be his assistant right from the beginning I sort of didn't give very much choice. We were married that she was going to be my right arm and the party particularly when I didn't write captions and she was a good speller and a good writer. And so. I put her to work right away as always doing my captions and

always working on the stories. It's been very compatible. We get along. Quite well. Have our little spat once in awhile. Mostly everybody does. I guess. I'm down to three years is pretty good. Evidence of. What. We've done. We have three children Paul big the oldest and I was a baby when he was born. So I had lots of film and even because. You know a lot of free time so I photographed his every move that the law gave Nancy our daughter 17 months later. And by this time I was out of the Navy and then five years later a log came. Now I really have in the book called The half of the have. So baby was sort of shortchanged but that no she was the one I used more marbles later because she was the one that was with me. I used to go on trips with them during school breaks. And he'd be on assignment going

somewhere and that really mattered where it was going or what he was doing. I ride along. And. You wind up carrying equipment or being a model I got to choose my own profession. And was permitted to do it. And so I was never going to. Try to influence the children to follow in my footsteps. Although you know in a way they could have inherited my business and but maybe got into it. A standpoint of preservation and but never as a photographer. I've never tried to do what he does and he doesn't try to what I do. And so we complement each other really well. I remember being in fear with Marian and Mame when Mary was back home and there was just frequent comment about what do you think mother would think about this. Would she like that or you dislike that or we're not going to tell her we did this or we are going to tell her we did that. So they're very close in the trail. I could actually tell both Megan and my wife that my my

good pictures come good clean living. That's the secret of my success. Good clean living. Of course both of look at me and laugh. Now. My father. Is a character. He's a really interesting blend of this person who grew up in the Midwest. And so he has this sort of Midwestern sense of humor. And. Point of view. I've always felt like I had a great advantage in coming from the Midwest. To a fresh new territory in Annapolis and the Chesapeake Bay because I knew nothing about sailing. I certainly knew nothing about oystering and clamming and crabbing and things and that made the bay what it is. And so I had to learn it all. I come to the conclusion that he really is the ultimate observer. He's he's always looking. He loves to really sort of meet people through his

photographs. And I think that I mean that's an integral part of his character is is the photography. He's a very gentle and humble person not an arrogant person and not one who would put you off because he is important. Oh that man has a great character. He's very friendly and he knows how to talk with people and get them to be part a part of his picture taken. He has people relax which is very important in my opinion. Get a good picture. I worked for probably 20 different photographers. I took a little from this one little from that one. I took a negative thing from photographers. I didn't want to be like. And as a result I developed my own character and my own technique. So he's a partially persuasive personality. And one who with his charm. Is most successful in capturing the world through his lens. I've done a lot of looking back not just in his career but

how he got to be the person that he is. And so I learned the details of what really is a very tragic childhood. By the time my first memory came along by my brother my twin brother had died and my mother died. I never knew either one of them. And my earliest recollections were living with my grandparents. So we lived on the farm until 1929. When they lost the farm. And my Aunt Edna who was a newspaper reporter for The St. Louis go Democrat bought a farm for her parents in Farmington Missouri. And so we moved up there. And all the way up there we had an automobile accident my grandmother was killed. So that year was one hectic year in that I didn't. Well I guess that was that's the thing a juvenile delinquent in those days I was there. Because I did get into a serious trouble but you know I was always playing hooky from school and things like that. And Miss and Edna who had taken my brother on when my mother died. In other words she'd

raised him from three years old. Took me on to 12 but she was strict. That was the thing that I think was. And again I accepted that because my grandparents had been strict. And you got away with nothing. And it was an opportune time. But I think she had the biggest influence of anything on me because she caught me at a turning point in my life where I could either gone downhill and amounted to nothing or and she led me she didn't push me. It like any other kid in high school you first of all have no direction or what you want to do or anything. And I was pretty quiet. Kids say the least timid. I had a very close friend who took up photography and I went in with him and we did our film in his bathroom. And I found it fascinating. Well he was really responsible for getting me interested in photography and this was as I came into my senior year of high school. So

my aunt let me buy a 12 and a half dollar Hargus camera so I made up my mind that I wanted to be a photographer. Well the next year I went to a vocational school and took their course in photography. And then I began to get my first job and photography which was all all of $10 a week. First job I had was with the Barnes Hospital which is the equivalent of Johns Hopkins Hospital here as a medical photographer. Then I got a job with one of the big Portree studios. And I learned to retouch negatives. And those days portraits were all heavily retouched with a lead pencil. And it was one of the best things I ever learned because I when I ran a portrait studio here in Annapolis. And other times where I all retouch my own negatives that lasted from October through Christmas. Now I'm out of a job again. The one studio I really want to work for was the Howard day studio which literally did almost news photography. I

worked there well over a year when that job sort of terminated a little bit. A business was bad. And by this time I worked with assignments along side the AP photographer in St. Louis and I told him I looked like I was going to be out of work and he said well we need somebody to do our photo work. And so I went and applied for the job and I got the job. And I went from $15 a week to 30 to 50 a week which was like going to heaven. It wasn't long before I was doing an occasional assignment for AP and then I was put on staff that after about a year with AP The war was on. I had offered to go for one of the portrays studios on one of the army camps as doing a darkroom work for 50 bucks a week. And so I quit and then worked for the portrait studio until I went in the service. And so what I got in the service I promised to go to photography school but after I signed the dotted line they sent me to boot camp and. No guarantee of anything. And I was quite disappointed. But on every application every form I filled out and they

talked about Creevey expired. I put in great big letters Associated Press three four weeks I suddenly got a call for a one man draft and I found out that I was being sent to Washington D.C. to the secretary of the Navy's office. So five of us set up a little lab there and I got the job of doing portraits of important people when they came through. One day word came that I was going to be photographing the Douglas Fairbanks Jr.. And oh man the cars the gals in the office got quite excited and it was all easy. So Douglas Fairbanks Jr. came in and he sat down and I arranged him and I apparently stared at him and he looked at me and he said Young man

this time I was all focused and ready to take a picture. And he said Young man what's wrong. And I said Well sir you don't look like Douglas Fairbanks Jr. with which he breaks out of this broad grin which everybody knew was Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and I snapped the shutter. And I think it's the only portrait I ever made of a laughing or smiling naval officer. I was set up to cover the party at the way headquarters the brand new way of quarters for Harry for the first continue the waves to come into Washington and they were entertaining the Renz which were the. The Navy's I mean the British equivalent to our ways. I made application to the waitress. And she accepted me. I'd never been to Washington before and it. Was really quite impressed. Well and the waves were hosting a party on the first Friday night for the British women

in the service. And I said look I need somebody to take captions for me. I was signed by the way Officer to write captions for the for this big event. So I kiddingly say she followed me around all evening. The least I could do was take her out to dinner. So I invited her to have dinner with me. So after everyone getting acquainted with Mary and we met regularly we were working in the same building and having lunch together and. Meet Again. We. Were going. To. Learn something more about the city of Washington. We're both lonely in Washington and so we had to have lunch we were in the same building and we had lunch and dinner. First thing you know we were walking in Hains Point enjoying the cherry blossoms.

One thing led to another. Came the 18th of October this date that we chose for our wedding. We would go fairly frequently to photograph Franklin Roosevelt at ceremonies and we went over to his law file final migration and then after the ceremony we were. Asked to wait and the press cleared out and everybody cleared out except the Roosevelt family. And we arranged the picture with Elliott and the other children as well as the grandchildren and great grandchildren and a group picture with Eleanor and Frank because they felt was probably the last time that any of the rozo family would be together with them and that was. His Word that He died a few weeks later. So as the war was coming to an end they realized that we'd been had this shore duty all this time

and it was time we went to see well by this time I knew my way around Washington Edward Steichen had a special unit that he set out to photograph the navy war. And a friend of mine I got an interview with Edward Steichen. The instructions were to bring along a lot of photographs so I took him with a big stack of stuff and he started through them like he was dealing cards. Just that fast. And I frankly resented it because I figured he could be looking at those photographs and finally he came to one photograph and he stopped and it was a small print and he looked and he looked up at me and he said young man. You make pictures like this you can be a fine photographer. And it took a while to really learn what he saw in it and finally it came to me and it changed my life entirely in photography. I realized that what he saw in this picture was realism was believability that this picture was real it wasn't fake.

So I decided that was the direction I wanted to go. I think and stylish people always looked at people and the buildings are wonderful and the trees are wonderful but he captures people as an artist that is I'm the holder of such a great phrase because he knows how. To capture the people at that wonderful moment. I think I've developed strictly my own style of photography to the point where people. Many times can know that's my picture without seeing a name on it. And that's what you strive for. After the war I went to work for Harrison Ewing which was at that time the top photographic studio in Washington D.C.. To me it was the greatest learning experience I had because I really learned how to light and pose a subject and more important to deal with a person after a year and a half of that I had had just about enough of it because first of all they didn't pay much. And I now had two

children. I had worked in the service. With a commander. Who we all knew was wealthy. Mitchell called me one day and he said I'm seriously gonna do a couple of books and things and I need somebody full time. So I said well I'll come under one condition and what I'm not working for you I can build a business in Annapolis. And he's fine with him. Well that we uprooted came to Annapolis and I went after all of business there was I went after publicity work. I when I joined the Chamber of Commerce I did a thing for our members and historic Annapolis was formed not long after that. And we did all the photography for them to promote the organization as well as document the houses. We had in the studio business for 60 years. And I'd been very tired of opening a studio and working at the whims of everybody. And by this time I had developed quite a bit of architectural work as well as some industrial work. When you're doing portraits you technically

diming it you're doing a small you know you have to do a lot of them and the profits aren't that great. But when you did work for a corporation you did one big bill for two or three days work and and it was a lot easier. And first of all I had. But more important it was more creative. When we first came to Maryland we were curious about the state and we wanted to know the historic places and the towns and so forth. And we began to go around and I found out that there was literally nothing no pictures no pamphlets about Marilyn. And. So I began the first thing I really worked on was for the state roads commission. We'd made enough pictures that we illustrated. The back of the state road map. Well then the hope was called to part with information form in which. A man was hired to promote Merel. But they had no money.

Well. They would have a group of travelers come to Maryland to so magazines are doing a feature on Maryland and they'd have to get pictures. That they didn't have any. So they would get them for me. But I have them line. So at the end of the year whatever money they had left in their budget was always earmarked for me. But we did a lot of bartering. Have the bartering consists of what we want to vacation. Like out Garrett County out in Harrington Manor where the state had parks and. Cabins we would exchange a cabin. For doing photographs. And we would do the same thing at Ocean City Maryland where we got to Ocean City and spend a week down there enjoying the beach. So I built up quite a file of the state of Maryland and then as I began to do brochures of course I had the available material to do it. For. Me. Helen caught on to me

and. I became his official photographer. When the queen mother of England came to Annapolis. To have hired me to document the whole thing. She was. One of the most gracious people I had ever met. She was just absolutely sweep you off your feet. I was really probably one of the very few kids in my class who had a working mother. And my mother went to work every day with my father. When I looked back and started processing my father's collection. I saw the work that my mother had done and thank God she was there writing captions on the negative envelopes putting dates down talking about what was there what had happened. She wasn't often there when the photographs were taken.

She shows up and lots and lots and lots of photographs. In fact that's partly how I was able to take some photographs. So I often look at them and see what my mother is wearing in the picture. Certainly I was learning all the time. Different. Places. She would have to go on over the company. To writing stories for newspapers or magazines. And then. Writing books. Through the years why of course we had things published here and there and we did things for historic Annapolis. People kept saying Why don't you do a book. Annapolis Well I've been working with a printer down here and bring your reports in Baltimore and a very fine printer and he said listen I believe in that book enough that we won't charge you to print it you can pay for it out of sales. Or you can't beat that deal. And so Mary and I

came home and started working on laying out the book and doing the captions. And. I did want great big captions under each picture. So what we did with the glossary in the back and of course each picture was numbered and you referred back to us as having Harwood house and it was built such and such a time. And so you got a little small short paragraph of a history of a picture. And that worked out quite well. I did the designing myself because I had nobody right. But Mary does I say did the text and we work very well doing it. The writing was. Totally mine. Cept we would exchange ideas and thoughts. Well it turned out. That it sold extremely well we sold out our 10000 copies without any problem at all but people were after us to do it again. We couldn't just literally republish the book. The simple reason to many things had changed and it still does to the idea

of. Using historical photographs of the same same same. The idea of going to the old pictures that we did and going to the same spot doing a picture looking down the street. Exactly the same way and then putting them on opposite pages. And that's been very popular. So that with our second edition and the esteeming of Cram's that's one of my favorite or a very wistful shot of sambil on the back or a shot of the State House which is soft and reflective of not so much the building itself but maybe what the building stands for. No question in my mind that take care of your area of spirit. You can see a picture here of Chesapeake Beach which was a big resort in Carver County was born raised and I can remember this boardwalk. I can remember the

steamboat wharf. I think you just captured the soul of the people he photographs particularly the waterman. You know these these people you know worked on the water all their lives and you can see that these people are very comfortable with what they are and what they do. And so Adams has had a great deal of influence on me because I admire his work very much. He also of course in posing in working with people everybody had quite a bit of influence on me both as a personality and as a photographer. The creativity that went into the composition yet doesn't intrude on the photograph. It's like some of these portraits that I particularly like some of his scenes. He has a scene of Spock Creek in winter time which I think is just extraordinarily powerful. Marians technique is interesting to watch. He likes to go into

a room or a group of people or whatever the situation is a set the camera up or he thinks of a spot and then he'll just kind of wander around and totally ignore the camera apparently. But every once in a while he walks past it and pushes the button again. When I'm teaching photography I say when you see a picture stop and make it. Because it may not be there the next time you go by there's a picture of a sailmaker over an Oxford Maryland. And 30 years ago we stopped. And I made a picture of this building because the clapboard building in it was rather disheveled and needed painting and it said sailmaker across the top of it. Thirty years later we found out that sailmaker was a man who was one of the natives sail makers and made beautiful sails. And we went up and did pictures of it. But by now. He had put aluminum siding all over the building. I wouldn't photograph it for anything in the

world. What time was photographing an old church in Baltimore. It was a store that had been converted into a church and it had graffiti all over it. It was good 50 and it was called the Living Church of God was hand written and letters above it. And I was set up to make a four or five picture of it and it was going to be a pretty good picture documentary of this building and this little black boy came along and said Mister make my picture. And I said You go right up there and sit on the steps of that church and I'll make your picture. He did and I made the picture the picture I made with nobody in an. Ordinary picture but I have sold any number of prints of people who just love it because that little angel is the one I photographed. And after we'd gone back to St. Louis after we were in Annapolis and of course I took a camera along and made a lot of photographs. And she'd never let me take her picture before. And I said come on and come on out here let me take your picture. Well by now you could see the pride in her expression and that's

the thing I love about that picture. There's that certain little gleam in her eye and a pride maybe I'm reading that into it. But those are the naturalness that I'm just sort of proud of this guy. Now I already make my picture. I have a lot of memories of sitting in the dark as a child. There's something about that time spent in the dark and it's very intimate. It's some kind of magical thing that goes on and it's like a source or of air stirring things up and they come up with these miraculous things. One of the things that I enjoy most is going in the dark room and I think that one of the things that influences me to do black and white photography because in color I have to send it out. And even if even if I did color in my darkroom you have very little control over the product. But in black and white you have a lot of control of the print the highlight details about you darken the sky with Nalgae dark darken the foreground.

The picture that I think I've printed most has been by night picture of the Bay Bridge and if I went downstairs right now I'd printed it I would get a great deal of pleasure out of getting have to come up just to the detail where I want I can come close and sometimes I hit it on the first print but very often I have to make three or four prints and I'm very critical. I have the sense of him. Being a perfectionist in the dark. Pretty early on because he would do this instantly to find me and then tossing it in a trash can and. Go back and make another one and then another one. And I think that an impression on me as a child. And it's funny because in so many other ways he's not a perfectionist. But in the dark room he is unfortunately the youngster coming up. I think it's much more exciting to be out there with the camera. Than it is to go in that silly old darkroom and and be by yourself in the dark.

But if you really. Enjoy the art. The darkroom work is very exciting. As. You come down the hall call it a Ritchie Highway this picture was taken before that you get to the Naval Academy. You got the old steamboat East come down to nap is a great day. It's. A lot of history in that. Period. Of history. That not only is an extraordinary photographer in his own right but he also has an abiding love for the preservation of the photographic memory. The photography of other people who document the history of our state. We began to collect old photographs of apples particularly when we were very active in historic Annapolis. These pictures are of buildings that disappeared or had been remarkable were very valuable. I had a case where a barrel and then they had a row

down the stairway and I borrowed them and photographed them and a year later somebody stole them off the wall. Now I had good copy negatives of them. And back the cover of our book came from that set of pictures of the old man on the bridge. I never took any formal training in restoring pictures but by trial and error you'd make a picture and you found if you developed it this way you've got a certain contrast and if you develop it another way you knew it was different. In fact. I used to drive the technical rep from Kodak nuts because so many things I did were not according to the way Kodak told you to do. And for instance the good example of that you'd get a very weak photograph that was you could hardly see the image yellowed to the point where you just barely could see an image. I could take a photograph. Copy it on process that has high contrast film that was only intended to be used for black and white line coffee but processed it in normal developer and I had an enhanced image.

Well I learned that by doing it myself and by the seat of our pants as I say I get a lot of old photographs from people either that need to be restored and often times before I do anything to that or it will. I will copy make a copy of it as it is. And when I have an artist restore the break in a photograph it's always done my coffee is never done on the original. Now one of the other things I can do with these is when I have those lights on the coffee it makes that's a little bit light right in there. And so I can take my hand during the actual exposure. And darken it down by keeping a little little one light off of the off the picture. That makes a big difference in helping out. One thing about a photograph. It's actual. If it was done in 1880. And you look at it. You can see the dress. You can see what's in the street. You can see the signs. You can see store

windows. You can study it and if not somebody's opinion on what was there is actually what was there. And you take a writer an author who does a book on. Solsbury at 1880. That's his opinion. It was like. But when you see a photograph of Solsbury in 1880 that's actually what was there. Every community should have a name and that Marion to remember where they came from and where they're going. It helps preserve it but it helps gives you a sense of community together as a team. They have work to create visual images of his own work and the work of other photographers and book form and I've done an extraordinary job of doing so. The book's Chronicle. Not only the Annapolis community I'm prejudiced because that's why I'm here but you have chronicled the state of Maryland and they aren't just historical text they are artwork it's an art form and it makes you feel good. Get the train done been and gone was the first time that maime and I collaborated on a book and it came about because we had a lot of old photographs of Annapolis

and it was the bicentennial year in 1976. I just love these old pictures of Annapolis. And my father stopped making prints of things and he got more and more excited about it. And I don't know when the light bulb went off or us but we just did a book here. We ought to look at these pictures. If we love this much we're not the only ones who love these pictures we'd seen so many of these books on old pictures of cities that Liberty's page after page of one picture and this is that street. And this is that building and so forth. And we wanted something entirely different. And fortunately we had the Maryland Gazette newspaper here which covered this in the same period. So we went to it and we found stories in the in the newspaper that related to the subject of the picture whether it be a building or a street scene or somebody on a bicycle for instance we copied those out of the newspaper and literally ran them and the type broken type misspelled words

making a difference right alongside the photographs. We got the book finished and we were not quite happy with it so we took it over to our friend Jerry Valerio who then wound up being our designer of all our books. Early on I appreciated that Marian seemed to trust that I wasn't going to. Damage his work. There have been cases where I had an idea that he disagreed with. We talked about it and almost always made an adjustment. Either he understood what I was driving I didn't entirely agree with me but trusted that I was going in the right direction as I saw it the title of the book The train has done been and gone. Well if I ever argued about anything it was things like titles to books and we were trying to find a title and we came across this phrase in a book. It was done on Annapolis in which

a man salesman was running to the train station and as he got to the train station he said What time does the train leave. And the man there said the train's done been and gone which is still to this day and. People cost to their bosom. The Bible of course at Annapolis. We decided to do a parallel book for the same period and the same format on the Naval Academy. And by this time we persuaded the novelist to to publish the book. So then it came time to title that book and they gave us this is it we've got to have a title as tricky and good as the train's done been and gone. And so with Twain Mame and I and the nameless The two we batted names back and forth and finally one day they called up and said we have the titles to the book. We called very quickly. That was not to be argued. And it turned out the title was

everybody works but John Paul Jones Well that comes from a diary that the midshipman used to sing during the period when John Paul Jones body was brought back France and it was buried in a temporary crypt and then it was buried in a crypt under Bancroft Hall. And finally a third time it was buried where it is now under the chapel because the Chapel was built. And so they kept moving John Paul Jones. So the saying is that if everybody works but John Paul Jones and he lies stuper in alcohol and in his crypt and it made a very nice little title for the book. The next book he wanted to do was a book on Baltimore. Old pictures of. Johns Hopkins University first gobbled it up and they loved it. And so they published the book and it's just now gone into a second printing. Halfway through doing this book. They came to us and said How would we like to do a book. On the entire state of Maryland of old photographs and to do a

complete book on the whole state. Sounded great. So it started from that original conversation and then we would map out some kind of a strategy. The three of us most of the time. About what's the best way to approach it. We started out at Ocean City worked our way up the Eastern Shore back down to the city of Baltimore and southern Maryland and then out to western Maryland. We would. Go into town and talk to the Chamber of Commerce and I'd say Will Mrs. So-and-so is down the street. She has I know she's got some old pictures and we go to her. She'd bring them out and we'd look at them and we just found some marvelous collections of early photographs. Then we also put together a lecture on preserving old photographs. And we got ourselves back to Cumberland community college and Solsbury state and other schools around. And of course that would bring out a pretty good crowd and name it sat there with

her pencil and paper afterward and just jot down names and addresses of people who had pictures. And of course they always said. So that's how we created that book. Well we're going to be dealing with some Panorama's and tickly aerial views that show a lot that we need to show a lot of detail. So we feel I personally feel it's got to be a fairly tabletop coffee table top book. Right. And even though we're dealing with a relatively small geographic area we have to set the scene for it put it in context. That's right. That's what's valuable about these nice new book I hope is going to be ready fairly soon. Well illustrate the downtown renewal story. There was an urban renewal project called Charles center located right in the heart of downtown and it was necessary to have pictures of the models showing what it would look like when it was built. His first assignment Don was to take pictures of all the old buildings in the area before they were torn down then to take a few photographs of construction. And

finally to take. The official portrait of the new structure. From that time on I would say over a period of probably. 35 years. I. Would take pictures of the individual outstanding buildings as they came on stream. Marion's books have been very well received by the by the public as a matter of fact. I also get a lot of people coming in asking for photographs from those books. We get a lot of people coming in who have seen the exhibit in pasters restaurant wanting copies of the photographs there. We have an editor of the hundred historic photographs of Annapolis. And. They. Seemed to be very well received by the patron. So this photograph here and what. We have found pictures that were in perfect shape or we prefer that one because that's an element of it just gives it a historical

feel. I used to play with Mary Helen. Helen. OK. It's right up here. I was born right there 45 Fleet Street. I was born this way. The old barbershop. That's it for me this became so vitally important to be able to collect and preserve the old photograph because they were at record of what existed. That was one of the great things that inspired me to do bringing back the bay because here was this period. Of the late 80s and 90s 90s in which the bay was in danger. What was going to happen. Bonderman were disappearing all this culture was beginning to disappear. And I thought it was very vitally important to go and document it. And I also was very strong about document as it was and not contriving it because my name and I were collecting each of these pictures old pictures for books

we would go through 10 times as many pictures as we collected. And. I began to realize why did we select that particular picture because it conveyed a message that the other picture. Do both of us I think developed a sense of what makes a photograph. Last. What makes a photograph remain relevant. Over time. They speak to you. They reach out you feel like you know the people who are in that process of looking at those old photographs was I think very instructive for my father who spent all these hours in the darkroom printing these prints and. And studying. Why why does this picture work. Why are we still looking at this photograph. And therefore I began to really seek out that type of subject matter what I was doing in my book. And. For the book we did oh probably three or four thousand pictures but only six hundred I've got in the book.

Well I wasn't concerned about that when I was growing up in part because I knew all those pictures would go into the files as a record one was great dreams one was great projects was to try and capture on film so much of what we are losing in and about the bay that is related to the industry of being a part of the world around the Chesapeake Bay. Much of my childhood he was working as a commercial photographer and he was trying to satisfy the immediate needs of a client. But as he's gotten past that phase and moved into more of doing the work he wants to do. It's he has. A remarkable sense of history in the making. And I really saw that as I traveled around with him doing the bringing back the bay. He was very deliberately trying to record the Chesapeake Bay and its

watershed which means going way up at tributaries and onto the land and all the people involved in the Chesapeake Bay region. He took thousands and thousands of photographs. That's one thing that makes him unusual. Photographer it is this. Sense that he's he's creating historical document. I had done all these pictures in black and white which was a great decision on my part because everything today is color. Very few books are published in black and white. And I feel that my bucking the tide. My first love is black and white and I thought I'm I just being prejudice. And I said no I'm not doing this for the book. Primarily I'm doing it to document this period. Black and white pictures are archival. Color is not. And the other thing we did was get a number of expert people to advise us on things.

And I had talked over the years of doing a book together because of his interest in photography and the fact that I traveled around the bay and do a lot of people. I went out and did interviews. And. Interviewed Oh I don't know I was probably about 40 45 people. For the book. And we used excerpts from those interviews as the text of the body of the book. And we did oral histories of. Waterman Waterman's was farmers developers all kind of people politicians. You name it. When he saw the body to inject it first place. His name is well known. He had been the hall and before he'd been to other committees before and many people knew who he was. But even when they didn't we never saw a single barrier put up. Most people just cordial in their acceptance of our talk. Now obviously you stop somebody and tell them you're taking pictures. And may I make your picture. They're going to pose. There's no question about it. But I always had the

camera on a tripod not up to my head while I was talking to you. I would focus on them. They were standing there or sitting there or whatever. And that I would stand off and we talk a while. And pretty soon I would lean against the camera and I would go back and forth. And finally I would feel that they were. Relaxed. And I was getting now the real them and I reach up and push the shutter. I also thought it was extremely important to get my father's stories. So. I sat him down day after day after day with all the print of the pictures that we were considering using in the book and we're talking hundreds of photographs here. And with my tape recorder. And I had him talk out every single photograph. About how and when and where and why he took the photographs. And. All of that. Got edited down. Into the back of the book and the

photographer's commentaries. To me that is less interesting and less valuable part of that book. Because how often do you ever get to know the story behind the photograph. But when I came to the archives and was sitting in my office one day a young woman came in and said to me my name is Mame Warren and I'm really interested in the photographic history of Annapolis and I'd like to do a book and I need somebody to sponsor me for a grant application. A young humanities scholar grant application. And I said well sure I'd be happy to sponsor you if you would be willing to think in terms of creating an archival collection of what you find so that we not only provide you a means of

doing a good book based upon the history of the photography of this town but you will also leave behind something of value for people to be able to consult and to work with. As the collection began to grow and become something that was. A management issue for me. And I think may recognize this and what she began pushing her father to think about let's look let's place this somewhere where it can be adequately cared for maintained and eventually made accessible to as many people as possible. I began to think well no I'm not going to be around forever and if something could be done to protect. The value of these which means that they should be available to future generations my father and mother gave. The collection of photographs. To the State Archives my father's collection of photographs and it was already well more than 100000 negatives Mame was working with us.

And I said Of course we are interested in this collection. You've got to find the volunteers to help us process it. And she did. We decided to give the collection in 1987 and I said Well are you going to be a few restrictions on it. One is in my lifetime I want to be able to have the full commercial use of them and I want total access to them as long as I'm alive as a result. I think we've had this wonderful partnership of publicly paid employees doing the work that needs to be done to manage and dedicated volunteers coming in here really putting the collection into a format. And accessing it in such a way that you and I and anybody else can get to it. I had a wonderful group of volunteers who came in once a week and worked with me and I can't thank them enough. Believe me the warrant collection would not it can be. You can get these wonderful dedicated volunteers and not come out when I actually got the job as curator of photographs after me left. I kind of inherited Mary and from her. That just continued to work that me was

doing in cataloging specific negatives. And then and you know sort of organizing things more and trying to get them separate into boxes. I would say in total we probably have. About. 50000 negatives from him and in addition we have probably another 50000 prints that includes the copy negatives. I think the best way to describe Marion is really for the people who are willing to come here to work for free day in and day out simply looking at the photographs that he's created and that he has gathered. And to describe them and to listen to him. Explain the process by which he did it. Well Murray I'm really glad to see you getting into the slides here because what you find is this boss. I've got at least 10 more years of slides for you. Actually we. Do know that Alan. Died in this wing. No

I did. I did because I read the book. You learn more about my values. That's right. It is a question that is extensively used by the public at the present time our indexes are mostly accessible only within the context of our search room. So when people call in about photographs or when they arrive in person they can get to the indexes and we can access what they're looking for as we move these indexes into more of an international or national context on the web. People are going to be able to do a lot more extensive indexing of descriptive text and link that to the immediate retrieval of images. And we expect user ship to skyrocket beyond that very steady stream of users at the present time. Marians collections an extraordinary legacy. There's nothing else like it in terms of all of us Saucerful singular collecting effort. The collection of Mary and Warren is is here.

And that's a logical place for those. Pictures to be have ever scattered it'll be impossible to get that kind of history of our state. It's a pictorial history. I mean I picked two. Actually my opinion is more important maybe more important than a verbal or written history of our state because a picture is worth a thousand words. We've been given something that many states don't have and I hope that the public appreciates the fact that they can go there and they can use these. And every time somebody uses a or photograph it just sort of enables us to thank him all over again for having preserved this part of our history. It is a very unselfish act. And. That is something. Unique to marry and. He's doing what he likes to do and he's a happy person and he has great integrity and our community has been lucky that he pounced here that he didn't go someplace else. I think he should as long as he's got a breath and continue his interest in the interaction of other people. I think he should never retire. Why I

ever see myself retiring. No. And I think it's one of a very very very fortunate things about my career. As long as I can fight my arthritis. And hurt and lift the roof. I can only take pictures. She did a great job with this together. Paul's for playing like he's a photographer because these songs on me with a flash gun. Just like this one. You all are like that. Here. Oh here is Mary posing on the bowels of a boat. She was my

model. That's one of the reasons that's one of the reasons I married her was because she would make a good model. I didn't have to hire outside people to post my pictures. I always had her along side of things she'd be jealous I had any. Chance. This was the picture we did of the family walk down the path for Germany. And this was huge. Crop tightly on a folder they made on Germany. The kids wound up on the covers of most of our publications one way or another. That was one of our Christmas cards Christmas cards

were we. When you grow up you can have things like. Four video cassette copy of Mary a war in the eye of the beholder please send a check or money order for 23:45 to empty video sales department 1 1 7 6 7 Owings Mills Boulevard Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7 credit card orders can be placed by calling 1 800 8 7 3 6 1 5 4