There is one photograph in the lobby of the Carver Center for Public Radio. It's a black-and-white image of the KUAF staff in 1993. It's a photograph taken by Don House. There are Don House photographs all across the region in homes and in offices. He's been here since 1986.
Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., he'll share some of his photographs from the past 39 years at the Fayetteville Public Library. This week, Don House and Sabina Schmidt came to the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio to talk about Sunday's event.
Sabina Schmidt is also a photographer. She's collaborated with Don on several projects, including the book Remote Access: Small Public Libraries in Arkansas. She's also a librarian at the Blair Library.
Sunday's presentation is officially called An Afternoon with Photographer Don House.
House: With a subtitle of What's Important and What Isn't. And the subtitle I added as I was putting it together, because it became clear what is important and what isn't in Fayetteville, as I put this slide together.
Kellams: What was the year you first took a photograph in the Fayetteville area?
House: 1986.
Kellams: Do you remember what any of those first photos were?
House: Well, I was, I would say, practicing portraiture in a way. I mean, I was photographing people who would walk in. We first started with a gallery where Amelia's restaurant is today on Dickson Street, and that was called the Photographers Cooperative. It was mostly gallery with a little studio in the back. And then the gallery was a ridiculous financial venture. And so the studio began to take over more and more. And that's when I started really, really getting serious about portraiture in Fayetteville.
Kellams: This is billed as an old-fashioned slide show Sunday afternoon. What do you mean by that?
House: Well, it's not old-fashioned in the sense that we're not using an actual Kodak carousel projector. I think Sabina told me that the AV department in the library didn't really have the equipment to make that happen, so it's a digital projection, but it's just random in a way — many random images of people and places in Fayetteville. Mostly people photographed over the years, you know, nearly 40 years of faces in this area.
Kellams: Have you seen the photographs that we will see on Sunday?
Schmidt: No. I think I know a few of them, but I have not received a preview. So this is going to be a surprise for all of us.
Kellams: Do you know, as we sit here and talk on Tuesday, is it already mapped out — all of them?
House: It is as of this morning. It's been a rough go, Kyle, because I asked Sabina how much time I had. I told her I needed three days, and she gave me 60 minutes. So I've had to edit down those number of photographs dramatically, but there's still a nice — I think it would be just kind of a nice window.
Kellams: You mentioned that what's important, what's not important — what's important?
House: People. I mean, that's it exactly. You know, I'm showing — I have one image that I think people will enjoy. It was my one and only aerial photography assignment — flying in an airplane over Fayetteville, looking down on Dickson Street and West Street, ’88 or ’89. There is no train bank. The Walton Arts Center doesn't exist. And to see that image and then to realize what Fayetteville looks like now and what's happened in between, I think will be very interesting to people no matter what time you arrived in Fayetteville.
Kellams: You're a photographer. When photographers look at each other's work, what do you do? You look critically, or do you just allow yourself to be surprised?
Schmidt: I want to allow myself to be surprised, but it doesn't always happen. There are photographs where you walk up — if it's in an exhibition or in a museum — you walk up to this photograph and it just takes your breath away. And it doesn't matter how old it is, how recent, whether it's a famous photographer, somebody unknown — it doesn't matter whether it's color or black-and-white. It just gets you. And in that case, I find it very difficult to be critical because I'm just so impressed and moved by it. If that doesn't work, then I do get critical.
This would never happen with Don's photographs, of course. Don's photography is extremely moving because he captures the essence of the people that he photographs — not just in their faces, but also in their postures. And if there's more than one person in the photograph, how they interact with each other or don't interact. I'm always moved by every photograph I've ever seen from Don, and that's one of the reasons I invited him to do this event.
Kellams: Here's something I'm going to talk about — like you're not here for a second, Don. Here's something about Don's photos that I've noticed for 40 years: the eyes. There's something he captures with people's eyes. And I'm not the only person who thinks this. And I don't know how that happens, other than the relationship you might have with the subject when you were behind the camera.
Schmidt: But I think — if we pretend that Don is not here — I think how he does it is he makes people feel comfortable whether he knows them or not. And, you know, he's done photo series, daylong shoots or hourslong shoots, where it's just five minutes with each subject, and it still works. It has something to do with how welcoming he is and how, almost, he pulls back. He lets the person on the backdrop be in control of the photo shoot, which is such a great skill, talent, genius — whatever. He looks at people, they forget that they're being photographed, and they relax. And I think that's where that contact, that connection, happens. And you're right — it's in every photograph.
Kellams: You have conversations with your subjects, even if it is one of those sessions where you only had five minutes. I mean, conversation is important for you.
House: Oh, it is. And in some of these public portrait things that we've done, it's really amazing. I mean, I'll say, “I'm taking two photographs — that's it, two shots,” and it's that quick. And yet you still capture that essence, and it has to do with them knowing that I have no preconceived notion. I'm not — in 50 years of photography, I've never told anyone to smile. I've never arranged anyone by height or anything. You bring them out to the canvas, you show them where it is, you show them a chair they can use or not, and you walk away. And then they begin to relax.
Kellams: You started with film. Obviously, you have done digital work.
House: That's right. Then I came back to film. So I started with film, I tried digital, and it was unsatisfactory to me. I mean, there were decades of learning how to use film — what it does and doesn't do, how to work in the darkroom. I just had unsatisfactory results with digital. If I were starting with digital today, it would be a different story. So, yeah, I'm back to film.
Kellams: You're still in Hazel Valley?
House: Yes.
Kellams: So Hazel Valley is one of these places that, for most, has remained more the same than other parts of Northwest Arkansas over the last 40 years. What do you think when you come into Fayetteville or Bentonville, and it is so dramatically different than it was in 1986?
House: Well, during this slideshow, people are going to have to listen to me make some complaints, I think, about that very subject because it is a shock sometimes. And maybe to summarize it, I would say one of the disappointments is to witness the continuation of — I would say — bad decisions and missed opportunities on the part of the city government, county government. So there's a lot of things being lost in Fayetteville right now that I hate to see go.
Kellams: You were mentioning how Don visits with subjects. There's a gentleness there. I think you've always been through your writing, through the tone of your voice, through what you say — I mean this as the highest possible compliment — you're a gentle human being. I look forward to hearing how you complain, because I imagine it's still going to be very calm.
House: Probably is, yes. For one thing, no matter how much I want to complain, it's the knowledge of — we talked about what's important in Fayetteville — the people who are still here.
Kellams: So is there a danger for those of us who've lived here since the 1980s or earlier, is there a danger in us becoming nostalgic or, to our detriment, thinking about the good old days and how they were better than now?
House: If you're asking me, I would say no. And, you know, it's a concept — I can sound like an old curmudgeon complaining about how everything was better in the past, but I think it's much deeper than that in Fayetteville. My truck mechanic, Chad at the Firestone, is a bit of a philosopher. I was in there recently, and I was complaining about, on the way there, the traffic and a wonderful building that I saw had been bulldozed. And he thought for a moment and he said, “It's good for business, I suppose, but not for the soul.” And I think it's the soul part of Fayetteville that I'm most concerned about.
Schmidt: What I also like — if you go to the library's page devoted to this event — are the pictures of David Swain, a young David Swain. I'm guessing a lot of the people — not necessarily the ones that are going to be in the slideshow — but a lot of the people you've photographed over those years are still here. So that part of the soul is still here.
House: Oh, absolutely. And part of the power that I've discovered over the years, even in a project like the library project — a three-year project just a few years ago — there is a significant number of people who are now dead that were photographed in that project. So there are people who have been lost in Fayetteville, and that photographic record of them takes on an additional power to me.
Schmidt: I'm a librarian in the genealogy department across the street, and one of my favorite things about working in that environment — being surrounded by documents, photos, letters, books that have to do with Fayetteville and Arkansas over the last 200 years or more — is that you hold a letter, you hold a photo, you may recognize a name. You may wonder, is this perhaps the great-great-grandmother of someone I know? And that connection is still there. So, yes, nostalgia, but it's also still alive. And I'm not quite sure how to define it. But there is a soul of Fayetteville that I think continues, and that's because of the people who may stay here or may move away and come back, or may move away and never come back. But in that collection, that genealogy collection, there's that whole soul and history of this area. And it's such a gift to be able to use that. And I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but that's what's great about a conversation like this — you don't have to know where you're going.
Yeah. I share this — driving into town, going, I can't believe they tore this house down. Or even worse, there's a house that was torn down, but I can't remember what it looked like, even though it was two weeks ago. That's painful. But Fayetteville is still there.
House: I've been working in the past year with some wonderful people at Special Collections and University Libraries — Katrina Wynden, Joshua Youngblood, and Kat Wallach — to transfer these photographic archives into their hands. To get them out of the rural, no climate-controlled studio out in Hazel Valley and make sure that they're available for families and researchers in the future. It feels good to be doing that work with them.
Kellams: You've taken these images of people, and we're so pleased that you did. And we remember these people, whether they're still with us or not. But so many of us, whether it was through work, whether it was through our engagement photograph — you're going to be remembered as well long past your time here. What do you think about that?
House: Well, that's a very touching thought. I'm honored. I think the thing that I noticed when I came to Fayetteville from Detroit in 1986 was how quickly what you would call your circle of friends just had exponential growth in a way that I'd never experienced before. Even if you didn't know the person in great detail about their lives, you felt they were part of your circle of friends. And I'm glad that I could be part of others.
Kellams: I know you'll see a lot of longtime friends Sunday. I hope you see some faces that you don't recognize — people. I hope there are some new people who come and see and hear you.
House: Oh, I do too. And you know what I've noticed? Along with Special Collections, Sabina and I have also been working with the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust to get that land in Hazel Valley into a conservation easement. Wonderful people. And the young people that I'm meeting through that organization — it makes you realize that this idea of what's important and what isn't — there are people, new people in Fayetteville, who have the same soul, who have the same kindred spirit, who are going to do Fayetteville good.
Kellams: It is appropriately in the Walker Community Room Sunday afternoon at 2. What else should we know?
Schmidt: Come early, and hopefully that'll lead to conversation. And that's basically all I want people to know — show up, enjoy this old-fashioned slide show, and start talking to each other. And of course, talk to Don and ask him questions. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it as a community event.
Kellams: Thank you both for coming in.
House: I need to say one more thing. Kyle, over these 40 years, you have been so instrumental in the arts and in promoting artists and art events. There are a lot of people, including me, in this town, who owe you a great deal of gratitude for letting the public know about us at times when it wasn't easy. So thank you so much.
Kellams: I've enjoyed doing it. It's never been a task or a job. And I've met wonderful people, and we're going to meet more wonderful people.
Don House and Sabina Schmidt speaking this week at the Carver Center for Public Radio. An Afternoon with Photographer Don House begins at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Fayetteville Public Library.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The authoritative record of KUAF programming is the audio version.
