Verne Morton was born on October 9, 1868, and lived in the town of Groton, Tompkins County, New York all his life; he died in 1945. A schoolteacher, he never ascended to national recognition as a photographer, though some of his work suggests he should have; he was content limiting his artistic domain to the region he was raised in. Morton’s photographs documented activities typical to the geographic and temporal setting within which they occurred, but—perhaps owing to his great familiarity with this division of American rural life—they do not feel voyeuristic or manipulative. Instead, they handle their subjects with tenderness and care.

I have selected ten of Morton’s photographs from Images of Rural Life, published in 2002 by The Dewitt Historical Society of Tompkins County (now The History Center in Tompkins County), which I feel are emblematic of these qualities, and which strike a chord on multiple fronts: for strength of composition, of historic virtue, of sentimentality, of pure grit (as in the book’s cover image, “Porter Morton (Verne Morton’s father) braiding seed corn, 1905”), and of a sort of visceral, rawness I think exclusive to the era in which they were taken.

"Porter Morton braiding seed corn, 1905." 1298

Morton was not a genre photographer; his work spans multiple facets of central New York life in the early twentieth century. Images of a Rural Life divides itself into eight common sections to account for them: Nature, Family and Friends, Childhood, House and Home, Farming, Town and Village, Leisure, and Travel. That list radiates sentimentality, but Morton did not lack a photographer’s ‘edge’; many of his images are linked by a sensitivity to minute, compositional and thematic details characteristic of photographic work that seeks to do more than document its subject as is.

"J.M. Webb with crates of potatoes, 1930." 3757

Nor does he appear to have had any distinct, political disposition with which he approached his subjects; his attitude feels at times critical and apprehensive (“J.M. Webb with crates of potatoes, 1930”), at others endearing and affirmative ("'Dumpville' station with Ronald Butts, seated, and two other children, 1932”). But it is clear from this series of 225 of Verne Morton’s works that he was in no way alienated from the reality threading through the Tompkins County communities he was raised in, a reality unique for its synthesis of country struggle and vibrant, bucolic charm.

"'Dumpville' station with Ronald Butts, seated, and two other children, 1932." 3823n

"Ackler group on rock with Ackler standing, Pleasant Lake, 1901."' 592

Some photos in Images of a Rural Life are downright beautiful. “Ackler group on rock with Ackler standing, Pleasant Lake, 1901” strikes me for its mixture of forms, the group’s members all solemnly posed on a rock on the waterfront save for a man on the side, clad in black-and-white-striped full-body underwear and grinning goofily, potbelly jutting forward just so, as he mimics a diver’s posture. There’s something amazingly charming about this image; it reminds me of the chaotic harmony of Weegee’s New York street photography.

"Teresa Lane and Neil Morton at Wyalusing Rocks, (Pennsylvania), 1934." A640n

But “Teresa Lane and Neil Morton at Wyalusing Rocks, (Pennsylvania), 1934” may be my favorite of the book. Viewed from afar, a man and a woman stand at the end of a jagged slab teetering off of a cliff face, the perspective giving way to the steep decline awaiting their misstep, and an empty, cloudless abyss envelops the scene. The man extends his right arm outward and points in the direction of this nothingness, past the face’s disordered foliage and the deadly drop below. The two stand on this brink, pointing, talking, and the rock slab points the same way, unyielding, too.

Written by Mason Detrani, Community Engagement Docent

Editor's Note: "Images of Rural Life: Photographs of Verne Morton" contains over one hundred black-and-white images chronicling every day and agricultural life in Tompkins County. This title is available for purchase here.