The Big Shot

On a potholed Hubbard Street block in River West, in a renovated one-time molasses factory where commercial photographer Dennis Manarchy (along with his wife and daughter) has made his home and studio for 25 years, there is a vast second-floor room containing a single camera roughly the size of a semi-trailer truck. A working prototype, it’s a sophisticated instrument capable of capturing some of the most detailed images the world has ever seen—portraits that find art in unlikely places, like wrinkles on an aging face, the hidden amber fleck of an iris, an otherwise invisible patch of peach fuzz. But the accordion-shaped camera looks less like a modern marvel than it does some old-fashioned idea of what a time machine might be, which is fitting, since Manarchy plans to build a toughened-up version to take on a 25,000-mile road trip in order to document the oldest cultures in the United States for a project called Vanishing Cultures, An American Portrait.

Cowboys, Cajuns, African-American farmers, dwindling Indian tribes, Holocaust survivors, World War II vets: Their faces would tower over viewers in a series of two-story-high portraits that would instantly confer iconic status on people whose lifestyles are fading from the contemporary consciousness. The ultimate goal for Vanishing Cultures, a project that would take an estimated $8 million to complete? “Have you ever been to the Washington Mall, the National Portrait Gallery?” Manarchy asks. “The Smithsonian’s pretty cool, right?” If all goes well, he envisions a traveling exhibit complete with culture-based food, live song and dance, supplemental books, tours of the camera and viewings of the 6-foot-tall negatives. His ultimate hope? To debut the exhibit at prominent U.S. locations like Millennium Park here in Chicago, the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. or New York’s Central Park.

That the project could find its way to the Smithsonian doesn’t sound far-fetched to Dan Soles, senior vice president of television programming at WTTW, which is considering acting as a fiscal partner and could potentially make a documentary series about Vanishing Cultures that Soles hopes will air nationally on public television stations nationwide. “When Dennis and his team came to talk to us about this, we were very encouraged,” says Soles. The station always has a roster of in-the-works projects awaiting funding, but Soles was moved by Manarchy’s passion and thinks his idea is particularly original. “Not only would it create a record and celebrate the legacy of these important American cultures, it would offer audiences an interactive experience,” Soles says. “If executed correctly, it could be very powerful.”

Manarchy has a long-held fascination with faces. In the 1970s, freshly returned from the Vietnam War (pre-draft, he had apprenticed with the great photographer Irving Penn) and in need of direction, he was invited by a Lumbee Indian chief in North Carolina to live with and document the people there. Since then, the Rockford native has taken regular breaks from commercial work to document everyone from circus troupes to the homeless. And after decades of shooting celebrities and luxury products while working on ad campaigns for companies like Nike, Harley Davidson, Christian Dior and Porsche, Manarchy has an eye for the kind of slick execution that should serve him well when pitching the project to potential donors (the project’s website and Kickstarter page already offer a series of professionally produced videos and materials illustrating the scope of the endeavor).

But slick is not the look Manarchy is after for the portraits. “Even when I’d shoot Michael Jordan for an ad, I’d say to him, ‘Give me 50 push-ups—let’s get you looking like an athlete,’” Manarchy says. “The best photos happen when you get beyond the vanity and see some toil.” If Manarchy and his crew are, say, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon photographing some of the 500 remaining members of the Havasupai Indian tribe, he doesn’t want his subjects to sit down in front of the camera having gotten ‘ready’ for the shoot. He would rather see them at the end of a workday, sweat, dirt, uncombed hair and all. “I want the patina,” he says. “That’s honest.”

Rick Boyko, director of the Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University and the former co-president/chief creative officer of Ogilvy North America, says Manarchy is the photographer he’s worked with most frequently during his career in advertising. “Dennis has always delivered images that go beyond what I ever expected. He’s made tons of award-winning photographs for my clients,” Boyko says. “But for as long as I’ve known him, he’s always been attracted to real workers—the reality and humanity of people across America.” Boyko is rooting for Vanishing Cultures to take off, and he hopes a sponsor or donor with a similar belief in his old friend’s vision will surface. “There’s a great story behind it, and there’s a reason to do it. And above all that, Dennis has a real passion for wanting to make something unique.” thefpac.org