Photo credit: Ellen Sabin, Calm Before the Storm, 2017
An upcoming photography exhibit co-sponsored by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies and the Fine Arts Department at Elizabethtown College is providing a remarkable look into the daily lives of members of a conservative Old Order Amish community in central Pennsylvania.
The exhibit, “Before Baptism: Growing Up Amish,” which focuses on the experiences of children who have not yet joined the church through baptism, and showcases the collaborative photography of artists Gail Nogle and Ellen Sabin, will be on display from Feb. 8 through April 4 in the Hess Gallery, located in Elizabethtown College’s Zug Memorial Hall.
“The opportunity to intimately document a culture steeped in tradition, and gradually inching toward the future, has been incredible,” Nogle and Sabin said.
The gallery is free and open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
An opening reception for the exhibit will be held on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the Hess Gallery with an artists’ talk to follow at 7 p.m., and like the exhibit, both are free and open to the public. Nogle and Sabin will describe the origins and surprises of this project, the relationships they have built, and the artistic choices and challenges involved with photographing the Amish.
Nogle and Sabin have been photographing the daily lives of Amish families in central Pennsylvania for the past 10 years and documenting the persistence and change of this highly traditional community. The photographers are donating several hundred images from their project to the Hess Archives at Elizabethtown College.
“The donation of our images to Elizabethtown College will preserve this gift for future generations,” Nogle and Sabin said.