Background

Ginny first began using a camera in the 1970's to take photographs for advertisements and to illustrate articles that she wrote for publications on antiques. From 1995 to 2005 she photographed the Lancaster County Mud Sales that are held every spring on the grounds of the local fire halls.

In 2003 she became intrigued with creative image making using a camera and digital equipment. These images, called scanograms, are photographic in style but are created without a camera. The images that she has created are real representations of objects that appear to be doing impossible things.

Recently she participated in the annual online photography project, Sofobomo. This was the third year that this project was done. Photographers create and upload a digital book of images with all work on the project taking place in the course of a 31 consecutive days between June 1 and July 31.

The book of images that she created and uploaded to Sofobomo is called Cardonnicum: A Place of Thistles which is a photographic study of thistles growing along the sides of the roads in Lancaster County. Weeds are a favorite theme in her photography.

To visit the online book, Cardonnacum, click on the cover image for the book.

Ginny is active in the Lancaster County Art Association where she is on the Board as Publicity Chair. She is a past President of the Association. Her studio/gallery is located on the second floor at 114 W. Orange St. in downtown Lancaster. She plans to be open on some of the First Fridays that are held in Lancaster.

More images will be added to the site with information, titles, sizes, and prices. In the future an online catalogue of images in a downloadable pdf file will be available to make browsing and selecting an image for purchase possible.

Mud Sales

Before spring officially begins in Lancaster County, Pa, the Mud Sales begin.

Mud Sales are the Firemen's Benefit Auctions which are major fundraisers for the volunteer fire companies.

Local people, both "English" and Amish, turn out to support the firefighters by buying crafts, food, horses, farm equipment, buggies, rollerblades, washing machines, plants, kitchen sinks, bales of hay, furniture, kitchen sinks, bathroom sinks, air conditioners, mules, quilts, goats, and home made ice cream.

The sales are held both inside buildings and outside but mostly outside. The ground usually is churned up into mud by the feet of hundreds of people. Thus the name: Mud Sales. "English" refers to those who are not Amish, Brethren or Old Order Mennonite. The towns where the Mud Sales are held are Strasburg, Bart, Gordonville, Penryn, Gap, Rawlinsville, and Refton.

Ginny photographed the merchandise being sold: the oldfashioned ringer washers, the horses, the buggies, speedboats with Amish boys sitting in them pretending, farm equipment which has a sculptural beauty as well as a utilitarian use, still lifes of rolled up hoses, children playing with the vendors' goods, Amish teenagers shooting each other with silly string.

She is drawn to take pictures of people from the Old Order groups interacting with objects that are not part of their culture. Young Amish boys always pedal furiously on the exercycle machines. Amish girls and boys pick up and handle the brightly colored plastic toys on the vendors' tables. Boys buy plastic squirt guns and pretend to shoot each other. Everyone watches the horse auctions. Amish men and boys attend the buggy auctions, looking to buy transportation. Children watch Ginny with her camera. Adults converse with each other and bid on the merchandise.

About photography and the Amish

Contrary to many popular conceptions, there are books, newspaper articles, TV programs, and movies which include images of the Amish. However, the Amish and members of several Old Order groups are not supposed to pose for pictures once they have officially joined the church. This puts them in an awkward position when people ask them to pose for the camera. They can be in pictures but they cannot pose. It is a sort of Catch 22.

The reason that they don't pose for pictures is that having photographs of oneself is considered vain and puts attention on the individual rather than the group. The group is of the highest priority in Amish life.

They don't officially join the church until they are in their late teens or early twenties. Before they join the church, they may pose for pictures without being in violaton of the rules.

If interested in reading more on the issue of Amish and photography, there is an interesting article at this link: The Amish and Photographs written by Brad Igou and published in 2001 in Amish Country News.

2011 Schedule of Sales

Honeybrook (The 3rd Saturday in February)

Honeybrook Fire Company, 679 Firehouse Ln., Honeybrook. 610-273-2688. (Date in 2011: February 19)

Strasburg (The last Saturday in February)

Strasburg is one of Lancaster County's' most beautiful small towns with a main street lined with houses built in the 18th and 19th centuries. From Route 30 go south on 896 to the center of Strasburg. Turn right (west) on Route 741. The Fire Hall is just down the street on your left. Date in 2011: February 26.

Rawlinsville (The last Thursday & Friday of February)

8:30 a.m., Rawlinsville Fire Company, 33 Martic Heights Drive, Holtwood. 717-284-3943.

Dates in 2011: February 24 & 25)

• Thursday: new and used farm equipment
• Friday: antiques, antique tractors and engines
  

Bart (The 1st and 3rd Saturdays in March)

Bart: From Route 30 go south on 896 to Strasburg. Take 896 from the center of Strasburg east to Georgetown where the Bart Fire Hall is. At Bart, at the first sale, they have a good horse auction. Before the horse auction starts, the Amish men hitch the horses up to surreys and run them around an adjacent track. The 2004 sale will be their 40th annual sale!

The boys usually play corner ball at Bart. In 2003 there was snow on the ground. Fog shrouded everything in a soft white haze so that the boys' solid blue and purple shirts stood out as the only color in a sea of neutral blacks, whites, and browns.

At the second Bart sale they sell building materials and other large items used in construction. Dates in 2011: March 5 and 19.

Gordonville (The 2nd Saturday in March)

Gordonville: On Route 30 in Paradise turn north on Leacock Rd. at First Union Bank. Or from Old Philadelphia Pike (Route 340), go south on Old Leacock Rd.
Gordonville is a big sale. It sprawls. A road runs through the middle of it. On one side of the road is a field full of farm equipment, building materials, and buggies. A tent is set up to shelter the horses consigned for sale. On the other side of the road are vendors selling canned goods, roller blades, plastic toys, tube socks, fruits and vegetables, and crafts. Multiple auctions go on both inside and outside the buildings.

The horse auction is a lot of fun to watch at Gordonville. You can get close up to the action or you can watch from up on the hill.

The weather can be wild this time of year, windy, snowy or rainy, but hundreds of people turn out for Gordonville regardless of the weather. Gordonville is both a social event and a show of support for the volunteer firefighters. 2011 will be the 41st year for the sale in Gordonville. Date in 2011: March 12.

Penryn Fire Company (The 3rd Saturday in March)

The Penryn Fire Company sale is a new Mud Sale held for the first time in 2006 on the third Saturday of March. It is the first Lancaster County Mud Sale to be held north of the Route 23/340 corridor. In 2011 it will be held on Saturday, March 19.

Gap (The 4th Saturday in March)

East of Lancaster and just south of Route 30 is the town of Gap. The Mud Sale is held in front of, across the street from, and around the Fire Hall which on a side street off of Route 30. If you are on Route 41 very near Route 30, you can see the big tents set up for the sale.

The Gap sale is held on grounds that are relatively flat. I sometimes stand on the bed of the flatbed trucks that are parked everywhere to get up higher with my camera.

A featured part of the Gap sale is the auction of the Amish buggies. Young Amish men and boys pull the buggies up in front of the auctioneer who calls out the bids. Bid spotters point dramatically to indicate new bids. An excitable auctioneer leaps in the air and shouts out the bids.

Date in 2011: March 26.

Wakefield (The 1st Saturday in April)

Robert Fulton Fire Company

2271 Robert Fulton Hwy., Peach Bottom. 717-548-2483. Date in 2011: April 2.

Rawlinsville (The 2nd Saturday in April)

Go south from Lancaster on Route 272 until you get to ??? road where you turn right. If you pass the furniture store, you've missed the turn. Follow this road to Rawlinsville straight to the Fire Hall which will be on the right.

The first Mud Sale that Ginny ever went to was the Rawlinsville Sale.

Rawlinsville moved its sale in 2001 from where the old fire hall had been at the post office to the new fire hall which is just around the corner and down the hill from the post office. Date in 2011: April 9.

Refton (The last Saturday in June)

Refton: From the city of Lancaster go south on 222. Continue south on 222. Turn right at the sign for the town of Refton. Watch for signs for the sale. The Fire Company is on a side street on the left off the main street in Refton. The Refton sale tends to be the hottest, most humid, least muddy Mud Sale. Date in 2011: June 25.

 

Scanograms

A scanogram is an image composed of two and three dimensional objects placed on the bed of a scanner. Detail can be exquisite in the areas where the objects are within the scanner's depth of field. What is "up" or "down" or "in motion" or within the depth of field is in the control of the image maker.

Ginny is interested in playing with the depiction of gravity, up, down, space, abstraction, motion, and reality. While a scanner has a short depth of field of a fraction of an inch, the blackness of the space that the scanner sensor can't reach expands the sense of depth rather than shortening it.

In addition to using unaltered three dimensional objects on the bed of the scanner, Ginny creates other objects to be scanned such as drawings or paintings or cut out shapes. The resulting image is part reality, part fantasy.

Scanograms have a historical antecedent in the photogram. A photogram is created by putting objects on top of photo sensitive paper and exposing the paper to light. The paper is then processed normally. Usually this process is done using an enlarger in a darkroom but it can be done without an enlarger using photosensitive materials with objects laid on top and exposing the assemblage to light. The artist Man Ray and other artists of the Bauhaus school are among those who worked with photograms.

Ginny has always loved old things. She loves their patina, their history, their associations to families, to a different time. She has photographed still lifes using old objects such as antique shoes, hats, and fabric. Her goal is to portray these objects in a whimsical way that shows their beauty and creates a visual story. The details of the story are left to the imagination of the viewer.

What she likes about creating images this way is that it offers a different way to tell a story. It is up to her as the image creator to make up the details of the story in a way that is somewhat believable. Since she has been a writer too, this is a process that gives her a great deal of pleasure.

The scanograms are progressing from still lifes to landscapes to explorations of Ginny's feelings about aging, mortality, and limitations.

 

 

Selected Awards & Exhibits

2008

• The Michael Engle Award, Lancaster County Art Association's most prestigious award. Presented May 1, 2008 in Recognition of Exceptional Distinguished Service to the Lancaster County Art Association.

2007

• First Place in Photography as Fine Art II, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA, Juror: Tom Beck, May 17 to September 9.
• Women's Expressions 2007 Exhibit, invitational exhibit of the work of women artists, Lancaster Women & Babies Hospital, Lancaster, PA, April 1–21.
• The Selective Eye: exhibit of the work of 11 Lancaster County photographers at the Rothman Gallery, Phillips Museum of Art, F&M College, Lancaster, PA, March 8–April 15.

2006

• Women Artists Invitational Exhibit, York Art Association, November 5–26.
• Night Gallery II Exhibit: “Creepy Creatures” Award, Lancaster County Art Association, October 28
• First Place in the Photography Category, Lancaster County Art Association's Annual Juried Exhibit, Juror: Richard Rosenfeld, June 11-July 22.
• Honorable Mention, York Art Association Spring Membership ShowFirst Place, The Garden Show, a membership show at the Lancaster County Art Association, Feb. 19-March 25.

2005

• Photography Exhibition, 5 Photographers, Art Association of Harrisburg, Oct. 22-Nov. 23
• Alternative Visions, Alternative Processes, Chesapeake Gallery, Harford Community College, Bel Air, Maryland, June 1 to September 9.

• Women’s Expressions Art Exhibit, Women & Babies Hospital, Lancaster, PA, March 28-April 15.
• The Shapes of Nature & Nurture, Two Person Exhibit, Pearl Conard Gallery, Ohio State University, January 6-30.

2004

• First Place, Lancaster County Art Association Members Show, Oct. 3-Nov. 6
• First Place Photography, York Art Association Juried Show, Oct. 3-Nov. 6
• Fruits of My Flatbed Garden. Lancaster County Art Association, March 28-April 24, Strasburg, PA
• 12th Annual Phillips Mill Photographic Exhibit, May 16-June 6, 2004
• Photography 23, Perkins Center for the Arts, Moorestown, NJ. Jan. 31-Feb. 29. Juror: Ruth Thorne-Thomson.

2003

• Philadelphia Sketch Club Photography 2003, Oct. 26-Nov. 15.
• First and Third Place Photography Juried All Media Show York Art Assocation, Oct.-Nov.
• Best in Show, Fancy Footwork, Art Association of Harrisburg Membership Show Sept. - Oct.
• 13th Annual New Images Exhibition: A Juried Photo Competition for the Mid-Atlantic States. James Madison University New Image Gallery. Sept. 5-Oct. 21. Juror: Peter Plagens.
• First Place in Photography, Lancaster County Art Association Juried Exhibit, Strasburg, Pa. June 15-July 19.
• Honorable Mention, Art of the State Exhibition, The State Museum. Harrisburg, June 14-Sept. 14.
• Women’s Expressions Art Exhibit, Women & Babies Hospital, Lancaster, Pa, May 9-30.
• The Manipulated Image, Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts. May 2-June 29.
• Photospiva 2003, April 11-May 18. George A. Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin, MO. Juror: Robert Parke Harrison.
• San Diego Art Institute 2003 46th Annual International Exhibition, May 3-June 15.
• Toys & Games in Art 2003-2004 Exhibit, Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, Alaska, June 2003-May 2004.
• Third Place, Bethesda International Photography Competition, Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD, March 14 – April 9,. Juror: Philip Brookman, Senior Curator for
• Photography and the Media Arts at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C..
• First Place in Photography/Prints Division, Midland Arts Association and Museum of the Southwest Spring Juried Art Exhibition, Midland, Texas, March 6 – 30.
• Mute, National All-Media Juried Show, Cade Art Gallery, Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, MD, March 5 – April 4. Juror: Richard Torchia.
• Best Out of State Artist, Arts in Harmony ‘03, Elk River Area Arts Alliance, Elk River, MN, Feb. 3–March 28.
• Honorable Mention, Woodmere Art Museum 63rd Annual Juried Exhibition, Phila., Pa, Jan. 25 – March 30.
• First Place, Cool Colors Exhibit, Lancaster County Art Assoc, Members’ Show, Strasburg, Pa. Jan. 12-Feb. 8,.
• Just Color, ArtForms Gallery, Manayunk, Pa. Jan. 30-Feb. 23.

2002

• Peninsula Fine Arts Center Photography First Place Award, Biennial 2002, September 14- November 3, 2002, Newport News, Va. Juror: Philip Pearlstein.
• Third Place, Camera Club of New York’s 2002 National Photographic Competition, October 19-November 23. Juror: W. M. Hunt, Director of Photography at the Ricco-Maresca Gallery, NYC.
• Third Place, Fall Membership Show, Lancaster County Art Association, Strasburg, Pa, September. Lancaster County Art Association

• First Place, PhotoSpiva 2002 National Fine Art Competition, George A. Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin, MO, May 4-June 9.
• Photowork ‘02, 15th Annual National Juried Photography Exhibition of the Barrett Art Center Galleries, Poughkeepsie, NY. Juror: Barbara Head Millstein, Curator of Photography at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, NYC.
• First Place: A Closer Look: Photography & Photorealism. Art Center School and Galleries, Mechanicsburg, PA, February.

1994-99

• Third Place Elizabethtown College Spring Arts Festival 1995. Juror: Ken Johnson, Contributing Editor to Art in America.
• Second Place Lancaster Summer Arts Festival, Photographic Visions 1999.
• Art of the State, State Museum, Harrisburg, Pa. 1995
• Honorable Mention, Art of the State, State Museum, Harrisburg, Pa , 1994

Publications

• Susquehanna Association for the Blind 2005 Calendar
• Lancaster County Magazine, March 2003, Feature Article about Virginia Caputo and the Mud Sale photographs: Muddied Memories.
• Susquehanna Style, April 2002. Parting Shot: Scenes from the Mud Sales of Lancaster County.
• Maine Antique Digest. Feature Article with text & photography by Ginny: Robert Kautzman, Vac Hunter, March 2001.
• Maine Antique Digest, Feature Article with text & photography by Ginny: A Conversation with Frank Whitson, August 1992.
  Collections
• Lancaster General Women & Babies' Hospital, Lancaster, PA