Take a step back into the 1930s, back to the beginning of the Great Depression. A little piece of history from downtown Richmond, Va.-a barber's chair, to be exact-sits preserved in a photograph at the Center for Documentary Studies.
In a photo essay called "Mr. Green's Barber Shop," Jeremy Lange depicts times gone by through the windows of a barber shop in town. During the roughly 70 years the shop has been in business, Mr. Green has owned it for 37.
Jeremy Lange, son of Provost Peter Lange, took a continuing education course at the CDS several years ago. For his final project, he made photographs of the barber shop near his apartment. "I have always loved barbershops, and this one has such an air of times past that I was intrigued," Lange wrote in a printed explanation of the exhibit.
Lange's is just one of the many new-artist exhibits that the CDS seeks to support and acknowledge. "The point of documentary work- is to help foster empathy and understanding and to expand the parameters of storytelling, of stories of community, stories of groups of people," Exhibitions Coordinator Courtney Reid-Eaton said.
The exhibit evokes a sense of time moving much slower than it does now-the very soul of an earlier America-a time before every man had his own electric razor, a time when "regular customer" meant loyalty for 20 years. "It's a new view on a common occurrence," Lange said about the collection. Images included are what might be expected of an exhibit with the title "Cutting," "Shaving" and "Combing."
What stands out, however, are the unexpected portraits of small-town farmers, war veterans and the homeless men with nothing in common except for regular visits to Mr. Green's.
"What meant the most to me there were the people. People create space, and they are why this space mattered to me," Lange said.
"A Twenty-Year Customer" shows a man's wrinkled, contemplative face. But in spite of his age, he still has a head of wispy, white hair-freshly cut and combed.
"Laughter" captures two men mid-conversation in a place where regulars come to take a break from their everyday activities and catch up with the neighbors. After all, if women tell their hairdressers everything, why shouldn't a barber shop be a hubbub of hearsays, sports talk and dreams of better days? The expressions on the patrons' lathered faces, eyes closed, are ones of, literally, blind faith in the hands of Mr. Green's time-proven expertise.
Lange's black-and-white photo essay is a refreshing departure from photos that typically describe our society. Pressing pause on the stream of movie star and pop artist icons in our present times, "Mr. Green's Barber Shop" vividly captures the faces of ordinary, down-to-earth people from a time and place that is both in the present and a reflection of our past.
"Mr. Green's Barber Shop" will be ongoing until Oct. 16 at University Gallery of the Center for Documentary Studies (located by the East Campus bridge).
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