Vermont Standard Article by Senior Staff Writer Tom Ayres
A recently released piece on my work, influences, and current shows from Vermont Standard newspaper on 1/19/23
WUHS alum photographs the world through a unique lens
Kimberly Hargis earns regionwide recognition for nature photography
An interest in photography and the natural world began when Kimberly Hargis was a child.
“I’ve always taken photos, ever since I was little,” the Upper Valley native and 1998 graduate of Woodstock Union High School (WUHS) recalled last weekend. “My grandparents had a Polaroid and I’d ask if I could borrow it and then take a ton of blurry photos that they were probably very kind to indulge me in doing, with me not knowing what I was doing and their wasting money on the film.”
That childhood indulgence on the part of her grandparents three decades ago has led to a lifelong passion for photography that has, especially in more recent times, earned Hargis New England and regionwide acclaim, especially for her nature photography. Her recent work is currently on exhibit in a solo show, “Close to Home: Photography from a 30-Mile Radius,” at Axel’s Gallery in Waterbury, the result of a competition among Vermont photographers that the gallery hosted last fall. The Hargis exhibit at Axel’s opened earlier this month and will continue through March. In the meantime, Hargis’ work is also included in two group exhibits in the region – in the “Daily Artists Show” at the Artistree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret through February 11 and at Kuya’s at One Main restaurant in Randolph through April 2.
The Hargis photograph that nabbed the honor of the solo showing at Axel’s, “Floating Feather” — the stunning centerpiece of the Waterbury exhibit — showcases Hargis’ penchant for macro photography, drawing attention to the wonders of the natural world around in diminutive detail. Hargis professes “a special fondness for observing life on a smaller scale,” the photographer said in a statement announcing the opening of the show at Axel’s Gallery. The artist elaborated on that sentiment in a phone interview from her Thetford Center home last Saturday.
“I really love macro photography,” Hargis offered enthusiastically. “It’s because you are studying life on such a small scale. It’s so interesting — there’s so much happening that’s right there in front of you and you’re usually not paying attention. What I really love about macro is that you can just observe these little micro worlds happening right outside. It’s pretty incredible.”
Hargis credits her immersion in the arts as a student at WUHS a quarter-century ago as being at the heart of her passion for photography. “I took a lot of arts classes with Caddie Johansen and Lynne Schulte when I was in high school,” Hargis recalled. “Those were two very important teachers in my life. It’s funny, however — while the high school had a phenomenal photography program when I was there, I spent the vast majority of my time studying theater under Harriet Worrell,” she added, referencing the legendary drama teacher and theater director who passed away last year. “I’m a very proud Yoh Theatre graduate and I would say more so than anything that Harriet was a huge, huge influence on my life. And that’s carried over to so many other aspects of art.”
Worrell and her husband, longtime WUHS football coach Chuck Worrell, were “forces of nature” for many youths in the Upper Valley over the years, Hargis agreed. “They were both such instrumental people in my life growing up, because of course when you had one, you had the other,” the photographer acknowledged gratefully. “Chuck took all the photos for the Yoh shows and he was always driving us to the different locations where we performed. And what I took away from the theater program with Harriet was her mantra, which was always, ‘Don’t do what they expect because that’s how you retain your audience.’ I’ve taken that to heart through various projects that I’ve undertaken during my life,” Hargis noted. “It’s carried over into my photography because I am always looking at different ways to present my subject. I always have that in my head: ‘Don’t do what they expect. Try to think outside of the box.’”
The artist’s journey from taking blurry photographs with her grandparents’ Polaroid instant camera to today’s award-winning art took a detour of some 20-year’s duration for Hargis. She just returned to photography with determination several years ago. “I got my own 35-millimeter camera around the age of 10 or 12 and just kind of had fun with it over the years,” Hargis said. “It wasn’t really a serious thing. But then back in 2018, when I was living on Cape Cod, a friend of mine was giving away his used Canon DSLR because he was upgrading his equipment, and he asked me if I had any interest in it. I thought, ‘This is a really nice gift. This is an opportunity for me to learn more about technique and really figure out what it is I’m trying to do.’ I have no formal training – but coming of age in the era of YouTube videos and tutorials and online articles, I’m largely self-taught, using this ton of resources that are available to help me understand and hone my skills.”
When Hargis and her husband, chef and veteran culinary worker Derek Lorrigan, relocated back to Vermont from Lorrigan’s childhood home on Cape Cod just before the pandemic struck, Hargis quickly joined the Quechee Area Camera Club, where she fell under the tutelage of celebrated Vermont nature and landscape photographer Lisa Lacasse. “She’s so gifted and has such a unique, distinct style,” Hargis said of Lacasse. “It was great to connect with her and enjoy a mentorship.”
Before departing Cape Cod and with her gifted Canon camera in hand for about a year, Hargis won the first of what would be a string of awards in the coming years: the Center for Coastal Studies “A Celebration of the Sea” photography competition honors in Provincetown in August 2019, just four months before moving to Thetford Center at Christmastime. She garnered her first photography award in the Upper Valley a scant two months later, when she won the Emil Rueb Award at the venerated, decades-old Elden Murray Photography Competition at the Hanover Public Library. The “Axel’s Photography Shoot-Out” honor Hargis notched last fall is the latest in the string of honors for her work.
Hargis’ profession for the past 22 years has been as a dental assistant. She presently works part-time with a practice in Hanover, following in her mother’s footsteps. “I take photos in a different sense,” she quipped, “because I do the x-rays. It’s similar but different, so I’ve always had picture-taking somewhere in my life.”
These days photography is central to Hargis’ life, particularly because she was diagnosed with celiac disease several years ago and subsequently has also been battling other chronic illnesses. It’s a major reason why the focus of her photography is on places and things quite close to home; she’s unable to work full-time or travel too far because of her medical challenges. Thus the title of her Axel’s Gallery show: “Close to Home: Photography from a 30-Mile Radius.” But rather than finding it limiting to work within such confines, Hargis has found it just the opposite. Talking about three of the photographs in the current Axel’s exhibit: the aforementioned “Floating Feather,” a macro photo called “Buzz Off,” featuring a close-up of a bumblebee flitting about a flower, and “Fawn in Flora,” Hargis noted that each photo was taken just steps from her wooded, pond-side rural home in Thetford Center.
“Those three photos were literally taken just outside my front door,” Hargis offered. “For me, it has been a chance to look at things in a new way. We have such a beautiful landscape to work with. I’ve been playing with things to see what I can do differently. I can’t go too far [from home] — but let me look at what I have and use that in a different way. That’s what I want my focus to be.”