Photo by Diane Guthrie
Jerry Mader discusses his photo/documentary project at the Dec. 8 exhibition.

Photo by Diane Guthrie
Chase Morris and Jerry Mader pose with Mader’s portrait of Morris.

On December 8th, Jerry Mader exhibited the first installment of his current photo/documentary project, “Carnation Verbatim — A Celebration of Elders,” at Pete’s Grill and Pub in Carnation.

The exhibit includes 12 black and white framed portraits mounted on a cedar-shake covered wall. These portraits are of Carnation elders, aged 82-92 years, many of whom are the grandsons and granddaughters of the first settlers who founded Tolt/Carnation.

Mader, 62, has been a composer and musician, writer and photographer and teacher for 30 years. He grew up in Montana.

While living in Missoula, he took photography classes from Lee Nye, who photographed retired cowboys and ranchers who lived nearby. Nye frequented a cowboy bar called Eddie’s Club and hung the portraits at Eddie’s. Nye did not capture stories of the elders he photographed and when he turned 60 he told Mader that he didn’t mind getting older, he just didn’t know how to do it.

Mader decided to photograph elders and also collect their stories. He said, “My job is to show who we are and where we are and where we’ve been and where we might go.”

From 1970 to1976 Mader photographed and wrote about the Northern Cheyenne in eastern Montana. He attended a tribal meeting. The oldest elder arrived late and everyone exited and reentered the room to be sure that the oldest entered first. The oldest sat in the front, the youngest in the back. Mader saw the tribe respect its elders for their wisdom. He said, “They are the most important element in the community.”

Two years ago Mader moved to Carnation. When he went to Pete’s he saw a place similar to Eddie’s Club, a community gathering place. He saw characters there – people with interesting faces.

Mader wanted to photograph elders from Carnation. Everyone told him to talk to Isabel Jones, president of Tolt Historical Society in Carnation. “They told me ‘She knows all’ and she does.” Jones identified 16 elders who have lived in Carnation all their lives or moved here when very young. Mader decided that after he had 12 photographed, he would exhibit the portraits.

Mader considers Pete’s Grill and Pub a historical artifact and a perfect place to exhibit portraits of elders. It was built by Pete Derieko. A 1910 interior photograph shows a bar on the right with a single spittoon on the floor, a cigar and cigarette case on the left, a pool table in the back. A 1940 exterior photograph has the words café, service station, Texaco, confectionary, ice cold drinks, clean restrooms, fishing tackle and license, and three iterations of the name Pete’s Club painted on the outside.

In 2000 Don Lovett purchased Pete’s. He sectioned it into a bar, a dining area and a game room. It is casual, open, has a creaky pine-planked floor. The back bar has wooden arches and mirrors and was built in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. In the 1960s it was brought here from Montana. A half-wall divides the bar from a ten-table dining area.

At first glance Pete’s may seem barrish, but a closer look reveals a mix of old and new, a place for young and old. There is an ATM machine, a computer for food and beverage ordering, children’s crayoned pages stapled to a mansard wall, booster stools, pull tabs, beer logos, two TVs. Alongside a wall stand four-foot tall orange and reflector-white striped “Motorcycle Parking” cones awaiting weekend visits of baby-boomer bikers.

On a typical evening you’ll see young couples with babes in arms, middle-aged people with adolescents, elders, pool players, men wearing camouflage caps at the bar. Lovett values families. “If you make young and old welcome, the rest will follow,” he said.

In June of 2005 Mader approached Lovett about displaying portraits of elders. After seeing samples of Mader’s work, Lovett decided that it was a great idea, and said, “Let’s get it done.”

Mader usually photographs people in their homes. He asks his subjects to wear no jewelry, no makeup, no fancy clothing. He has them wear a plain dark top. “Clothing can move your eye from the face,” Mader said. “Chase Morris was different – I needed him to wear his suspenders. His shirt was plaid but I went for it.”

He shoots with a medium format, twin lens reflex Mamiya camera. “They don’t make them anymore. As the world is going digital, I’m going retro.” Mader said. He uses a strobe flash. Mader moves around, gets his subject talking and animated, and takes 12-24 shots in ten minutes or less. “Peeks into the soul happen at 125th of a second,” Mader said. “That’s the speed that I shoot at.”

Mader records up to two hours of interview on audiotape. “They accept me,” he said. “Tell me their whole life story.” He plans to have taped copies of the interviews and transcriptions housed in a historical society.

Mader sees Carnation as rich in history, small and stable, with generations of families, and family values.

Several of the people in the portraits are related: Isabel Jones and Wesley Larson are sister and brother. They are of Swedish descent and their grandparents homesteaded here. Eugene Magnochi is brother to Lena Thompson. They are of Italian descent. Willow Guptill and Chase Morris are siblings. Garnet Paar and Donald Davis are cousins.

Howard Miller was the long-time owner of a dry-goods store in Carnation called “Miller’s.” Ill health prevented him from playing sports but he loved them and wrote sports articles for a Snoqualmie newspaper. The “Howard A Miller Athletic Field” at Tolt Middle School was named after him.

Nick Loutsis is of Greek and Italian ancestry. When growing up he woke at 4:30 a.m., walked to neighbors’ farms to milk 40 cows, walked to school, and in the evening walked more miles to milk 20 more cows. He served five terms as mayor of Carnation, three won as a write-in candidate, and retired in 1965. The “Nick Loutsis Park” on Entwistle St. was named after him.

Edith Fay taught 3rd grade at Carnation Elementary. Students who attended that school in the 1940s and 1950s knew her. She died on December 9th, the day after the exhibition opened.

Garnet Paar was also a teacher but had to quit when she married Mike Paar. During that time married women weren’t allowed to teach. She didn’t mind because her husband needed her help. He owned a butcher shop called Paar’s. In the morning she helped him pack meat in a wagon so it could be delivered around the valley.

Donald Davis still gardens, maintains the Carnation cemetery lawn, and splits firewood – five cords this winter.

Robert Andrealli took five months to agree to have Mader photograph him. Because he frequently drives tractors through downtown Carnation, he is affectionately called “Tractor Bob.”

Willow Guptill’s mother wouldn’t let her go out on dates. Her future husband courted her by eating supper with her and her family. He was very tired from doing farm chores and frequently fell asleep at the table.

Chase Morris is very exuberant, speaks in a distinctive raspy/gravelly voice. When he was 15 his dad died and he took over supporting the family. He didn’t marry until in his 30s.

Mader has completed three more portraits since the exhibit opened. Lovett has space for them.

Lovett enjoys seeing and hearing reactions of people to Mader’s exhibit. They point and say, “Why are those people on the wall?” Locals say, “Oh, I know him/her.” The best he’s heard is “I don’t have a grandfather. I wish that was my grandfather.”

Mader looks to elders for guidance. “These people are teaching me how to get where they are,” he said. He also hopes that as he ages, he will be celebrated. He said “I’m doing what I’d love to have happen to me.”