My maternal grandparents lived for a while in Chapel Hill, NC and while there, had some photographs taken of their first born. I inherited that photograph when the “baby” in the picture, died, I hasten to add, after a long and fruitful life. That photograph, of my aunt, Dr. Angela Snell Homme, is posted in this blog.
It turns out that the photographer was none other than Bayard Wootten. You can learn a lot more about her by reading “Light and Air: The Photography of Bayard Wootten” by Jerry W. Cotton (1998 UNC Press). I recommend that book to you.
Here’s the “short version” of Bayard Wootten’s life as presented on the “galleryc.net” web site. "Born in New Bern, North Carolina, Bayard Wootten is one of the American South's most significant early female photographers. She was descended from a prominent southern family; her maternal grandmother was a writer and poet Mary Bayard Clarke and her father had a photography business, and galleries in Raleigh and Goldsboro. After taking classes at the New Bern Collegiate Institute, Bayard Wootten attended the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial School, now UNC-Greensboro, where she received most of her instruction in art. Wootten pursued drawing and painting in college but took up photography in 1904.
From 1928 until her retirement in 1954, Wootten operated a successful studio in Chapel Hill, managed by her half-brother, George Moulton. This arrangement allowed her pictorial style of photography to blossom. As one of the earliest photographers to use the medium as fine art, Wootten was acclaimed for her fine details, thoughtful compositions and artistic expression. Bayard Wootten is best known for her photographs from the 1930s that demonstrate her mastery of a large range of subjects including scenes of the North Carolina Mountains, the Carolina islands and coastline, Charleston, botanical studies and images of the mountain people of the Appalachians.
Bayard Wootten was a pioneer and an adventurer. Her remarkable career included many firsts: she designed the first trademarked Pepsi-Cola logo, she was the first woman member of the North Carolina National Guard and the first female aerial photographer in America. Over the years she had studios in New Bern, Greensboro, and New York. Wootten was a member of the Pictorial Photographers of America, and the Women's Federation of the Photographer's Association of America. Her photographys have been compared to the work of both Dorothea Lange and Doris Ulmann."
This blog format does not allow for the posting of links. So to view the above commentary and also to see a number of Wootten's stunning photographs, just do a search for Bayard Wootten galleryc. It should come up.
IIt was my privilege to look after Aunt Angela the last ten years of her life. Little did I know that her life had intersected with an amazing photographer, Bayard Wootten. I commend Wootten’s photography to you.
