Photography by Ben James and Anching Lin, Drawings by Amy A. Crawley

This body of work started in response to feeling disconnected during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. I began researching my community and the Poor House Farm down the street from my house. That led to an exploration of the 1800’s, Victorian England, Industrialization and discovering Lewis Hine’s photos of female textile mill workers. I asked myself “Who are these women?” “Where did they come from?” “What happened to them?” I researched the textile mill industry, read The Lowell Offering and other books. Through my drawings I seek to honor their memory and tell their stories.

Amy Crawley is a charcoal & mixed media artist. After 10 years working full time as an artist, she took a hiatus, switched mediums and returned to creating her art in 2019. She is a Trustee & board member at the Amherst Historical Society & Museum. 

amyacrawley.com

I set out just before Memorial Day. I had a hammock, my camera, a microphone clamped to the handlebars of my bicycle. I wanted to look closely at people’s faces, to give them my full attention at a moment when so much in our society seems to be coming unraveled. I rode south from the border, taking whichever road ran closest to the Connecticut River. Sometimes it was gravel, scenic and slow. Other times it was a narrow-shouldered highway with tractor trailers blitzing past. I met people on their porches and in their yards, or walking the streets of their cities and towns. “Pardon me,” I’d say. “I’m sorry to bother you.” And then I’d try to ask a question worthy of their time.

I was born and raised in Taiwan during World War II. I went through the normal passage of schooling and graduated from National Taiwan University in 1963. I pursued graduate work in Mechanics and Hydraulics at University of Iowa with Ph.D. in 1969, then worked at University of Utah for 12 years and eventually engaged in private consulting until 1997. I pursued photography as an enthusiastic amateur, used to keep a darkroom to do black and white photographs before the digital age. I use mostly Fujifilm cameras for my work, and I have a preference to do close-up shots as the exhibit here would suggest.