Holmespun: An Intimate Portrait of an Amish and Mennonite Community, Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity.

Holmespun: An Intimate Portrait of an Amish and Mennonite Community, Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity

photographs by Amanda Lumry and Loren Wengerd, text by Laura Hurwitz EagleMount Press, 2002/174 pp/$45

There are shelves of photography books about the Amish and conservative Mennonites whose traditional dress and pastoral lifestyles have attracted many a curious eye over the years. The more conservative groups' religious convictions against photography present an interesting challenge to photographers. Collectively, most images of the Amish, on the web and in coffee table books, reinforce the idea that these "plain people" are captive in another time: an otherworldly group who act out a historical diorama for the entertainment and edification of passing tourists. The images tend to be fuzzy, faded out, and misty, making references to an era when camera technology was limited, and to a 19th century pastoral tradition and idealization of rural life.

The images in the book, Holmespun: An Intimate Portrait of an Amish and Mennonite Community are refreshingly different. Photographs and interviews of the Amish and Mennonites clearly establish them as individuals within the context of their community and its distinct culture.

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The apparent misspelling of Holmespun is a reference to Holmes County, Ohio where the photographs and interviews were made; the authors's quaint choice of title is here to warn the reader of his choice to radically limit the written and photographic observations to the people of one small community. The book's focus on one community contrasts with other publications that make broad statements about all Amish and Mennonite groups. Instead, Lumry, Wengerd and Hurwitz illustrate the diversity of the Amish and Mennonite cultures, depicting the less conservative Mennonites who accept some degree of technology and a relatively broad range of dress styles.

Many books, postcards, and websites about Amish communities seem to magically erase all touches of industrialization from their photographs to show the archetypal image: that brief moment in the early morning mist when horse and buggy travel the road with no sign of trucks, cars or mechanized farm equipment. The community portrayed in Holmespun is not so pristine. It includes signs of the surrounding industrialized world, and the tourist business that inevitably springs up around Amish communities. Holmespun does not exclude the contradictions between traditional ways and life in the 21st century. Several photographs show buggies in modern traffic, including close-ups of the buggies' electric safety lights. Amish youth can be seen playing volleyball in contemporary sneakers and traditional dresses made of synthetic fabrics. Non-Amish neighbors interact at the market with Amish and conservative Mennonites.

Unlike most books about these religious minorities, the writing and photography has an insider's tone, in keeping with the subtitle: An Intimate Portrait. The photographers--one is a Holmes County native--were allowed inside private residences (although never permitted to photograph Amish adults.) There are unusual photographs of women at work in the kitchen and quilting, and of Amish children reading at home.

The text is informal. Hurwitz, the interviewer, seems to be speaking with her own neighbors in the tone of a small town gossip column writer about topics ranging from children, families and hobbies, to cultural differences and tradition. The narrative is sympathetic to the religious convictions of the groups portrayed. Although the writing may seem naive, the result connects the reader with the religious community in a somewhat intimate way. The images associated with the interviews belong to a vernacular photographic vocabulary; the photographic technique remains simple.

Amish culture is often promoted as a return to the untouched, unspoiled landscape of the past. As a counterpoint to this stereotype, the communities in Holmespun are portrayed as a contemporary group making distinct choices about technology and lifestyle in the face of 21st century stimuli. The author and the photographer of Holmespun succeed in bringing some refreshing light on Amish and Mennonite life as well as in clarifying and challenging some of the current assumptions of the non-Amish world.

Amish and Mennonites

The Amish and Mennonites (sometimes called 'the Plain People') are Protestant religious groups stemming from the Anabaptist movement in 16th century Europe. Led by Mennonite pastor Jakob Ammann, Mennonites split from the Amish in the 1690s, over theological differences, including debate about growing conformity of that church to the surrounding culture. Amish and Mennonites began to immigrate to the United States in the early 18th century, although both groups maintain some forms of their traditional dress, language and farming methods. Both groups emphasize a simple lifestyle, community sharing and pacifism.

Joanna is a graduate student in the MFA program at Visual Studies Workshop.