DlO—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 13,1980
Photographer chronicles her vanishing way of life
Cranking ice cream
Soob-a-mcil-doh
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
MORGANTOWN -
Modem-day “Annals of the
Conestoga Valley” are again
being chronicled for future
generations.
But instead of pen and ink,
as with the much-sought
popular historical text of
that title, it is now being
recorded through the
camera lens and sparkling
eyes of a photographic
sprite, whose love of life and
love of capturing it on film
are clearly reflected in each
click of her shutter.
Yvonne Hartz, of Rl
Morgantown, is a curious
combination of traditional
plain background and
contemporary womanhood
who knows what she wants
and then proceeds to seek
and grasp it.
Her bubbly yet quiet
demeanor would never
reveal that she walked into
the photographic depart
ment of one of the giants of
farm machinery
manufacturers without
formal photographic
background and calmly
said:
“I’m willing to work for
nothing if you’ll teach me
something.”
Perhaps, it was partially
her straight-forward honesty
Milking time father Paul
father Paul
and partially the sheer
surprise of her unusual offer
that she got the job and has
been on the (paid) photo
staff of Sperry New Holland
for the past three years.
While on the job she can be
traveling to most anywhere
in North America
photographing Twin-Rotor
combines or giant com
choppers, her first love is
chronicling her farming
heritage and way of life
Her photos of family,
friends and neighbors
demonstrate the care and
talent she injects into each
click of her Nikon.
But her diversified in
terests go much deeper than
the camera’s viewfinder.
An industrial arts major at
Garden Spot High in New
Holland, she took an extra
year of high school to gather
additional experience in that
field. She’s built a mantel
clock and produced metal
sculpture. She’s driven truck
dehverying bactena-free
rabbits from Dutchland
Labs m Denver and once
took a few months off to
practice her calligraphy in
tracing her family’s
genealogy.
With these various artistic
interests and talents, it’s no
wonder that she considers
photography a special art
form and, almost as with a
brush and palette, “paints”
the life of her family on the
150-acre Paul Hartz’ organic
farm on the eastern fringes
of Lancaster County
Favorite subjects include
everyday and fast
disappeanng activities of
her parents and six younger
brothers and sisters amidst
the peaceful, pastoral set-
Riding the wind - sister Heidi
ting, which has been in the An accomplished
family for three generations, photographer in his own
Yvonne, now 23, got rights, Reilly gave her a roll
started with a 35 mm. of film with the advice:
camera from her grand
father while in high school.
She walked in one day to her
industrial arts instructor,
Tom Reilly, and asked:
“Can you show me how to
use this?”
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Rural heritage -- sisters Heidi and Audrey
“Go start pressing the
button.”
“The first roll wasn’t too
good,” Yvonne recalls.
“But the second was a
winner.”
And she’s had a lot of
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JMU
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winners since, including a
Sperry corporate award for
a construction photo taken at
Mountville.
She processes and prints
her own photos.
“I remember the first time
I got into the darkroom,” she
explains.
(Turn to Page Dll)
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