Sunday Afternoon with a legend
It was August 16, 2004, when my father and I met Volkmar Wentzel at his home in Aurora, W.Va. He and his wife, Viola, were visiting their farm from Washington, D.C., and agreed to meet me for an interview for Goldenseal Magazine.
Mr. Wentzel is one of four photographers/writers who have influenced my work as a documentary photographer. He worked for the National Geographic Society for decades and produced many legendary story/photo packages, ranging from India to his beloved West Virginia. On the latter note, we shared a common interest, for he lived in Aurora as a young man, went to high school there, and launched his photography career by trading images of local farm families for a bushel of potatoes or other farm products on which he and assorted D.C. professionals lived in their woodland Bohemian enclave. After Eleanor Roosevelt, who was passing through on her way to Arthurdale, purchased several of Volkmar’s postcards of area scenes, Volkmar decided to hitch a ride to D.C. and look for work in the photo processing field. That led to his first book, Washington at Night, and, eventually, his job at National Geographic.
He was a joy to interview, and as part of our afternoon together, he showed me the old pump house that had been his makeshift darkroom. He washed his prints in spring water and had to work by night because the house had so many leaks. Once, when reaching up to the rafters to switch on a light, his hand landed on a large black snake.
Among the images he made of Aurora in the 1930s was one of my grandfather’s farm in Eglon, now junkyard. The beautiful valley, the barn of which my grandfather was so proud, and the home that my great-grandfather Judy built, are captured in that image.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Wentzel were born in Germany, and they shared with me that they felt right at home in the Youghiogheny Forest of Aurora, which reminded them of the Rhineland. This landscape attracted many German immigrants in the late 1700s, as well, including my fourth great-grandfather, Jacob (Vatter) Feather. The Union District of Preston County continues to have a strong representation of German-Swiss immigrants among its residents.
Although Volkmar has been gone for more than a decade, residents of Aurora still recall him and his photo exploits. One person recalled seeing him driving his Volkswagen Beetle up a steep pasture road, park it, jump out, and start shooting photos. Reminds me of my own misadventures up some pretty rough roads in my Scion XD.
This attraction to the landscape and its people led Mrs. Wentzel to sell her home in D.C. after Volkmar passed and move into the house they designed and built in the Youghiogheny forest. She became involved with the Aurora Project, which has Volkmar’s darkroom in one of its rooms of the former general store on Route 50. And, in a series of visits, she graciously provided me with additional details for a Goldenseal story, which appears in the Spring 2023 issue.
Volkmar’s photos are exhibited at the Aurora Historical Society’s museum on Route 50. The museum is open Sunday afternoons and is well worth a visit. His photographs are the kind of images that I strive to create within my own slice of time. They are the work of a true artist and compassionate gentleman. If you have any interest in Appalachia, great documentary photography, or the human condition, a visit to the exhibit is well worth the journey. If you can’t make the journey, visit the Volkmar K. Wentzel website that honors his life and includes galleries.
As both the Goldenseal story and website note, despite his many accomplishments as a photographer and writer, he considered his greatest contribution to ensuring the priceless images in the NGS’s image collections were preserved. In that, we also share a common passion in not just making images, but making sure they will survive for future generations.
Regardless of what field we work in, we have practitioners who inspire and influence our work. In addition to Volkmar Wentzel, the others for me are Eric Sloane on the writing side and O. Winston Link and Richard W. Brown on the photography side. For filmmaking, I go way back to the documentary work of West Virginia native Pare Lorentz. His images and words are lyrical, his storytelling timeless with works such as The River.
Link, a commercial photographer from New York, made many trips to Virginia and West Virginia to photograph the final days of steam railroading. His outstanding work was done a night and inspired me to pursue the same path with my documentary photography. Several books of his railroad photography are available, and he has a cameo role as a steam locomotive engineer in October Sky. Richard Brown, of New England, produced one of the most succinct and helpful books on landscape and rural photography, Pictures from the County. And Sloane, who was an illustrator and author, influences me as both a writer and documentarian of the passing American scene.
I’ve never met these gentlemen; one of my regrets is I never made the trip to Long Island to interview Buchannon native Lorentz while he was still living. But I cherish the memory of meeting Volkmar Wentzel and being friends with his widow. My work will never begin to rise to the levels of these four practitioners, but they continue to shine a light on my path through these final years of documenting life in this mountainous corner of the world.
Read Carl’s story about Volkmar Wentzel, his photography, and West Virginia connections in the Spring 2023 Goldenseal magazine.
