A big thank you to Library Director Dawn Jardine and Assistant Director of Operations Donna Brown for being so helpful in coordinating my visit and supporting the project – Great Barrington is lucky to have you!
Mason circulates roughly 150,000 items annually for a town of over 7,000 residents. The library serves not only Great Barrington but many surrounding towns in South County, making it one of the busiest libraries in the Berkshires.
Upon arriving, I was invited right into the archive room. Situated just off of the great room, it’s a small space only accessible to the public by appointment. The trove of fragile documents, tattered historical records, and random overflowing office boxes is the kind of hidden gem I dreamed of stumbling upon when The Last Quiet Place was just a thought.
In contrast, Mason’s massive reading room might be one of the largest and grandest of all the libraries, open and spacious yet warm and charming, featuring two fireplaces, cast iron window stays (likely original), and colonial-style chandeliers.
I captured the dichotomy of grandeur and detail by alternating a wide angle lens and a 50mm prime.
When shooting artistically I try to “plan” as little as possible. I didn’t know beforehand how I would attack rooms such as these. There’s a certain amount of surrendering necessary in creating any piece of art, and I had decided I would always let the libraries reveal themselves. For that reason, as I moved through Mason, I kept both lenses on my person and only switched according to what wanted to be photographed, versus letting what’s attached to my camera dictate the shots. Any time I can cut out logic or my equipment from the creative dance, I will. The closer I get to just my eye and the subject, with a little heart, the better.
I left Mason thinking about its sheer size – the size of the building, the number of people passing through, its reputation. It was a real honor to photograph.
Mason Library was built in 1913 from a $50,000 bequest from Mary Augusta Mason, who left the money in memory of her husband, Captain Henry Hobart Mason. The new building replaced an earlier library, a small clapboard house, on the same site.