Historical Photographs (1890-1950)
In all his work in Pawlet, Neil Rappaport was influenced and inspired by the photographs of Nellie Bushee (1862-1947) and Ella Clark (1893-1980). All three photographers made a significant contribution to the visual record of the community. The historical images add to the more recent ones and help put the present-day images in a larger and more meaningful context; an unusual one hundred years' photographic continuum in a single small town.
Neil was aware of Ella Clark's work first because her photo postcards were sold in local stores. He always said that Ella opened the door for him when he was the new young photographer in the town; people in Pawlet were used to being photographed. Ella always had a camera and tripod in the car wherever she went and she went everywhere in the town making pictures. She was often high up on a hill looking down on the town or covering an expansive view with Haystack Mountain or the Mettawee River as a focal point. She also photographed all the major events, activities and special occasions in the town during her active years (1910-1950). Ella most likely learned to use a camera from Nellie Bushee.
Nellie Bushee was a native of Pawlet. She became town clerk after her father in 1911 and remained in that position until 1930. She began taking pictures around 1895 and continued until at least 1910. She left approximately three hundred glass-plate negatives in Ella's care. Nellie worked in private environments making photographs of her family and close friends. It is difficult to say how much she might have known about the larger world of photography, but she had an unusually sophisticated understanding of the medium and was a talented portrait photographer.
Browse: Historic Photograph Series