The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/31966
Casual Chit Chat Victorian Portraitist Lady Ostapeck Each week, we have a casual conversation with a member of the community. This week, Victorian Portaitist Lady Ostapeck and Cassandra Miller chit chat. You are known for your whimsical pictorialist style por- traits in which your sitters dress up in Victorian or other era clothing and assume a persona. What is it about that style of photography that interested you enough to practice it for more than four decades? It goes way back to when I was in the crib. I woke up, and I saw a picture, and I’ve been looking at pictures ever since. And then when I was little, I had an adoptive mother who would sit me in the corner with her picture album to amuse me while she and her lady friend were having coffee. Evidently, it got embedded in my mind _ the ladies in white dresses and everything was so beautiful. And when I became older, I wanted to be artist. I was never a Rembrandt. I became a negative retoucher in the city. They called me the “retoucher with soul.” I did that for a long time, and then I moved to Fly Creek. I went to the Salvation Army, and there was this beautiful old camera _ a 5x7 camera that had just been reduced from $100 to $50. I only had about $50 in my bank account. I admired this beautiful camera, and something overpowered me and I bought it. I polished its red Russian leather bellows and shined the brass fittings, and I took it all apart and put it back together. That was the situation that pushed me into doing pictures. Then somebody gave me a 4x5 100-year-old lens. It had a broken shut- ter, and it took these pictures that put me on top of the world ... Digital cameras have ruined the whole thing, because it’s quick and easy. Just because it’s quick and easy, doesn’t mean it’s great. It takes nine months to have a baby _ are they going to figure out how to make that quick and easy, too? You currently live in Oneonta, but you lived in an old farm- house in Fly Creek from 1960 until 2010 after moving from New York City, where you were a “negative retoucher with soul.” How did you first get into negative retouching, and did that career influence your career as a photographer? I studied as a dress designer, and couldn’t find any work. But I answered an ad for a photo retoucher, and I did that for a long time. ... Because I had 40 years of retouching, I could make a pretty person beautiful. And every person I took a picture of has loved me ever since because of the magic of showing the beauty of them. How did a portrait sitting used to go? I would spend the day with someone and ask them about their history and their family. I’d ask them what their earliest memory was. I ask them where their family is from, what was your grandfather? Your great-grandfather? I ask where in the world they’d like to be _ Here in America? In France? In Renais- Contributed and they feel the love and they look at me and I feel the love. If you look at a person, you don’t have to tell them that you love them. They know by how you look at them and how you feel, and they get self-assured. What did you like best about the farmhouse in Fly Creek? I was so glad it was a shabby house. I loved that house. It was a charming cottage, and there was a happy ghost in it. And she helped me out. I needed curtain rods and she had sticks for curtain rods _ what a neat idea? She taught me a lot of things. All my props are stuck in my house, and I wish I could find someone who could use them. I still have the house, but I know as soon as someone buys it, they’ll tear it down, and I don’t want to torn down. sance Italy? A lot of people wanted to be Scarlett O’Hara, but I wouldn’t do that unless they were from the South. The Renais- sance was a favorite time of mine. I would give them a script _ you’re a princess and out the window there’s a prince on a white horse. Of course there was no prince on a white horse, but she would see it and believe it. Regular photographers don’t have time for that nonsense. Once I’ve taken their picture, they love me. Because I give them an awareness of their self-importance and worth. Wheth- er you’re a king or a dishwasher, everyone is a wonderful person. The secret is _ I’ve got the secret word. It’s a four-letter word _ not that four-letter word _ it’s L.O.V.E. I look at them You were born in 1918 to Finnish immigrants, are fluent in Finnish and have been many times to Finland, where you cur- rently have an exhibit through March 2012. How has Finland and its culture shaped who you are? My mother died when I was 5 days old in Brooklyn, and I was sent to live in Brooklyn, Conn., with my aunt who was murdered by an ax murderer. And then I was with these Finn- ish farmers. Brooklyn, Conn., was all Finnish. I spoke Finnish before I spoke English. I just went (to Finland), March 17 this year. They (the Finnish organizers of the exhibit “A Lady of Style: Lady Ostapeck’s American Costumes and Portraits,” which runs from March 18 through March 18, 2012, at Museum Centre Vapriikki in Tam- pere) paid for everything. I didn’t spend a dime. They showed me the invitation with one of my dresses on it. And 400 people came, and everyone drank champagne. Four-hundred people drinking champagne in my honor. The Finnish have this word. It’s “sisu,” and it means “God dammit, I won’t give up,” and they have this tenacity in every- thing. It helped them in the Olympics. Now, I don’t know what happened to the Finnish boys, but they used to do well in the Olympics. You’ve said in interviews that you spent a lot of time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Do you have any favorite artists or paintings? I say my college was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was a factory girl, and it was 5 cents for the ferry, 5 cents for a hot dog and admission was free. That was the cost of my college. One of the pictures that moved me was by a famous artist in Finland. It’s an old lady out in a field with a scrawny cat by her feet. There’s nothing beautiful about it _ she’s not beautiful, the cat’s not beautiful. But, it’s poignant. There’s this tenderness of that moment. What is the best part of living in upstate New York? I love the smell of cows and horses. I really moved to the country to get a horse. I got a good-natured old bachelor _ not a purebred. It was 12. It lived to be 29. Purebreds were dy- ing off at 16, but that horse didn’t know any better. That horse was my therapy. I would get on him and ride through the hills. If you ever need therapy, get a horse. I thought you had to be rich to get a horse, but you don’t. If you have to be poor, live out in the country. You can always eat dandelion greens. The photo teachers in the area would bring some of their students to my place to learn about photography. I wanted to show them you don’t have to be rich, you just have to have imagination. Lady Ostapeck is giving a talk and book signing at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 19, at the Green Toad Bookstore on Main Street in Oneonta May 19, 2011 O-Town Scene 7