12/05/2016
As printed in the Charlottesville Daily Progress Newspaper:
Photographer Jim Carpenter will see what develops during semi-retirement phase
BY DAVID A. MAURER [email protected] | (434) 978-7244
Jim Carpenter’s long career as a photographer started with a nudge and a request.
“A guy named John Atkins, who sat next to me in a class at Lane High School, said they needed help taking photographs for the yearbook,” Carpenter said recently in the beautifully appointed photography studio that soon will be closing its doors.
“I told him I didn’t have a camera, and I had no idea how to develop print pictures. When he offered to teach me, I bought a used 35 mm camera and started working with it.
“I would wait until nighttime so there wouldn’t be any light coming into the basement room of our home where I developed the pictures. Many times, I would be down there until 2 or 3 in the morning watching that magic as the pictures developed.”
The owner of Gitchell’s Studio in Charlottesville isn’t ready to hang up his cameras quite yet. However, he is ready to ease things back a bit and slow the pace to a more tolerable gallop.
“I’m 66, and, to be honest, the photographic industry has changed a lot,” said Carpenter, who has been taking photos for nearly 50 years. “It’s hard out there now with the digital cameras, and everybody taking pictures with their telephones.
“It used to be when someone would show you a picture of their grandchildren, they would pull out their wallet and show you a photograph. Now, of course, they pull out their phone.
“What money I make off portraits and such doesn’t truly pay the overhead bills I have here at the studio. So it’s time to move on, and my plan is to work out of my home.”
When Carpenter announced on Facebook that he would be closing down the studio at the end of December, he received more than 750 responses. Former customers, some with tears in their eyes, have dropped by to tell the photographer what he has meant to them, their families and the greater Charlottesville community.
Among the civic volunteer duties Carpenter has taken on through the decades has been serving for 20 years as a member of the Charlottesville/Albemarle Rescue Squad and the Charlottesville Volunteer Fire Company. He also has been affiliated with the Dogwood Festival since 1975 and has been instrumental in the recent enhancement of the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial.
Much more high profile has been Carpenter’s attention to the photographic needs of countless people. Krystal Lauer first had her photo taken by him in 2000, when she was the reigning Miss Albemarle.
“Jim took my photo for the Dogwood Festival and, since then, he has photographed all the major parts of my life,” Lauer said. “He photographed my wedding, our three sons as infants and our annual family photo.
“Our home is a gallery of Jim Carpenter photographs. There is nothing that matches his work, but it’s not just the quality — it’s also the love he puts behind it.
“Selfishly, when I heard he was going to semi-retire, I was heartbroken. The first thing I thought was: Who will take pictures of our family for other major life events?”
No worry there. Although Carpenter is selling the building that houses Gitchell’s Studio, he will carry the name forward and continue serving his loyal customers.
“My whole thing right now is not to let Gitchell’s Studio die,” Carpenter said of the establishment, which was started in 1907 by Frank Gitchell. “Our idea is to keep it going in 2017 to make the 110th anniversary.
“Somewhere along the line, I’d like to find a small place where I can have a studio to help people. I do photographs for the medical students at the University of Virginia, and I charge them a minimum amount.
“I want to continue to help them out and help everybody I can. But I also have to look out for myself and my wife, Joan, who has been a big part of the business.”
Carpenter was born and raised in Charlottesville. After graduating from high school in June 1968, he got a full-time job as a staff photographer for The Daily Progress.
“I started submitting photographs to the Progress when I was still in high school,” said Carpenter, who for 11 consecutive years won Professional Photographers of America’s Photographer of the Year award. “There was a guy at the newspaper named John Wilson.
“One day I submitted a picture to him, and he asked me who took it. When I told him I did, he said I had a good eye and timing. Those encouraging words helped me, and by the time I was 21, I was the chief photographer at the newspaper.
“I’m pretty much self-taught, but I would always look at other newspapers to see what other photographers were doing. I really liked telling stories with a single photograph.”
During Carpenter’s more than 20 years at the Progress, some of those picture stories he generated were tragic. There was the crash of a small airplane in the median of Interstate 64 that involved fatalities. Another sobering picture was the recovery of a female murder victim from the Rivanna River.
“There was a huge turnaround in my life when I took over Gitchell’s Studio 28 years ago,” Carpenter said. “When I first started doing photography, I was helping the city and county do a lot of forensic photography, so I was seeing probably the worst of the worst.
“When I bought Gitchell’s and got into the portrait side of photography, I started to see the good things of life, like the weddings and such. It helped mellow me out.
“My main focus has been portraits and weddings, but I decided to do my last wedding in October of this year. After doing weddings for more than 30 years, I’ve pretty much seen and done it all.
“I was at a wedding when, at the very last second, the groom said he couldn’t go through with it. I’m telling you, it felt like there wasn’t a breath of air in the place.”
Michelle Kizer cried when she learned that Carpenter was closing shop. She met her favorite photographer when she and her future husband had their engagement photos taken.
Carpenter followed that up by being the couple’s wedding photographer. Since then, he has taken their family pictures, as well as pictures of their three children.
“Jim is really a Charlottesville icon, and he has certainly watched our family grow,” said Kizer, who is a teacher at Fluvanna County High School. “He’s such a central part of our community, and we feel that he’s a tangible member of our family.
“My kids refer to him as Doctor Jim, because they know when we have an appointment with him, it’s serious business. They love going to see him, because his interaction with them is so genuine, and he’s completely patient.
“He has meant so much to my family, and I’m going to miss not having him capturing those moments that only he seems to bring out in my kids. And he is one of the only people who actually gets my husband to smile in pictures.”
Carpenter’s interest in clowning and making children laugh helps him put the little ones at ease. He has never forgotten the sage advice a great humanitarian once gave him about how to properly relate to children.
“I met Red Skelton a couple of times when he was here in town,” Carpenter said. “He told me to always get down to the child’s level.
“Clowning has been my hobby for a long time. Ten years ago, I got to be the guest clown for a day with the Ringling Brothers Circus.
“My whole thing is working with children. One day, I walked into the UVa hospital room of a little boy. He had been badly burned, and had been hospitalized for 90 days.
“When I was leaving, I saw that the nurses were crying, and I asked them what was wrong. They said they were crying because that was the first time they had seen the little boy smile.”
Aside from the many state and national awards Carpenter has received for his photography, he has been a quiet champion for the community and nation. He served for 20 years with the U.S. Army Reserve, retiring with the rank of master sergeant.
Although Carpenter has been the consummate soldier and civic volunteer, it’s his photography that most people think about first when his name is mentioned.
“Jim’s work is exquisite, and his pictures are priceless to me,” Kizer said. “We have a fire evacuation plan for our family.
“The first thing is getting the kids and the dog out of the house, and the second thing is to grab Mama’s pictures. Last week, I was at the doctor’s office, and while I was waiting for one of my kids, I mentioned that I would be dropping by Jim’s studio later.
“One of the nurses said that as beautiful as his pictures are, he is a nicer man. That is exactly true.”
Although people have expressed “heartbreak” and “sadness” that Carpenter will be going into semi-retirement, they also are happy for him and his wife.
“Anyone who knows Jim knows how much he loves his wife, Joan,” Lauer said. “The fact that they will be able to enjoy more time together without the stress of daily work makes me happy for them. So my heart is full of joy for him as he enters this season of his life.
“Although he won’t be fully working at Gitchell’s with an open studio, there is no way he will be missed, because he will still be very active and involved in things.
“I know there are other photographers, but there will never be another Jim Carpenter.”
After Carpenter closes Gitchell’s at the end of the month, he will take care of odds and ends during January. Three people are interested in buying the building, which basically represents the couple’s retirement fund.
The photographer has made arrangements to donate all his photographs and negatives to Special Collections at UVa. As far as the business goes, he said he’s simply “downsizing.”
“I can’t turn my back on photography,” said Carpenter, who has photographed eight presidents and the Dalai Lama. “Whether it’s teaching photography in the future, or doing whatever, it’s my calling.
“I truly feel blessed for having had the career I’ve had. I’m just trying to downsize and take a little more control of my life, and do what I want to do for a while, like work in my garden.
“I don’t want people to think I’m going away. I’m just going into another phase of my life, and slowing down a little bit.”
