Christopher Record (upper left) photographed 27 Davidson people for his project “Faces of Davidson.” Click the image to go to his website; just click on “Faces of Davidson” on the left menu.

What is the face of Davidson? For Chris and Betsy Record, it’s a diverse parade of personalities from all walks of life – public officials, police officers, musicians, artists, Davidson College employees, native sons and daughters, Main Street businesspeople and retired bank executives. Those are the kinds of people the Records, owners of Christopher Record Photography on Main Street, included in their newly published photographic project, “Faces of Davidson.”

Mr. Record is a former Charlotte Observer news photographer who now works as a free-lance commercial and editorial photographer and also shoots weddings, in what he calls a “documentary” style.

A year ago, the Records set up their photo studio downtown above Main Street Books. This winter, as the Huntersville couple thought about how to introduce themselves to the community – and also to get to know it better – they hit upon the idea of documenting Davidson in 2008 by photographing its people.

After soliciting nominations from the community, and coordinating scheduling with dozens of potential subjects, they have ended up with 27 black-and-white portraits of Davidson people. Most will be familiar to longtime Davidson residents, though a few may not be so well known – yet.

Betsy and Chris Record (SEAN RECORD photo)

Some are newsmakers or actually write the news – Mayor John Woods, for example, or Bill Giduz, the local juggler and Davidson College news chief and photographer. Others are legendary for their accomplishments here and beyond Davidson, such as gnome artist Tom Clarke or Davidson College basketball coach Bob McKillop. Several are known along Main Street or on the airwaves – real estate agent and musician Rusty Knox and WDAV-FM host Jennifer Foster.

(I am obliged at this point to disclose that I am among the 27. I also worked with Mr. Record at The Charlotte Observer in the 1990s.)

A DIVERSITY OF FACES

Mr. Record set out to know the community better. After a tightly-scheduled series of photo sessions in March, he came away with an “underlying, deep appreciation for the community,” he said last week.

In photographing the men and women, young and old, black and white, he learned Davidson is a place with “many interesting people and a lot of diversity, in terms of personalities,” not to mention backgrounds. “It was fun meeting people and there was a lot of interaction with them,” Mr. Record said.

Most of all, his conversations “showed how close-knit the community is and how people value being a part of it,” he said.

The most difficult part of the project was choosing whom to include, and Mr. Record is quick to say that his final list of subjects is not all-inclusive. An entirely different set of 27 people could have made for an equally representative group of “Faces of Davidson.”

“There were many worthy people. We did the best we could. We know there many others we could have included,” Mr. Record said.

SEE THE FACES

“Faces of Davidson” may be viewed individual or in a slideshow on Mr. Record’s website, christopherrecord.net.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE

Feb. 20, 2008, “Photo project seeks faces of Davidson.”

May 26, 2007, DavidsonNews.net, “Photo studio opens above Main St. Books”