By Rodney Wolfenbarger

On Monday, January 12, 2009, more than forty people filled the Appalachian Center Gallery to attend the opening reception of an exhibit of photos by Warren Brunner regarding mountain religion.

The exhibit, titled “A Time for Every Purpose: A Sampler of Mountain Religion” displays twenty-five of Brunner’s photos and was assembled by College Curator Christopher Miller, who curated the exhibit in collaboration with Berea College students enrolled in an APS 121 class focusing on Appalachian Culture. Employing the knowledge and the skills gained through their classroom study, the students divided into teams, considered nearly a hundred images, and debated which images to include in the exhibit and why.

The student-selected images display features of Appalachian religious life and the various practices some institutions embody in public worship, such as foot washing, faith healing, serpent handling, and homecomings, when families return to worship in the churches of their childhoods, to have dinner on the grounds, and to participate in Decoration Day. A number of the photos also reveal the intimate interiors and modest exteriors of regional rural churches that Brunner visited during the 1980s and 1990s. While working with Dr. Deborah McCauley, Brunner captured more than 3,000 images of mountain churches and mountain people, a collection to which the exhibit images belong. The best of this collection were published in two books: Appalachian Mountain Religion: A History (1995) and Mountain Holiness (2005). According to Brunner, religion played a vital role in Appalachian daily life. “They were always very spiritual and the friends I had known, real religious,” he said. “They had the church in their home.”

Much-admired for his creative blending of portrait photographer, photojournalist, and documentarian, Brunner has also long been known for his intense personal involvement and respect for the people, lifestyles, and mountains he photographed. Such signature characteristics have made Brunner’s work popular among many Appalachians, and his work has played an important role in documenting regional culture. Loyal Jones, former Appalachian Center Director, said that he was “pleased that Warren is getting the recognition and appreciation that he deserves.” “Warren is truly a remarkable person, always able to ingratiate himself with all kinds of people, and photograph them,” Jones said. “I think he has been successful in doing this because they all knew that he was truly interested in them.”

Warren claims his love of photography began when he received his first camera from his father at age 14. Afterwards, he honed his skills by taking photos for his high school yearbook, his town’s local newspaper, and the United States Navy. In 1954, after having studied with a Master Photographer and having attended the Winona Institute of Photography, Brunner answered an ad, becoming the manager of Mattson Portrait Studio in Berea. Six years later, he purchased the studio, and made a permanent home for himself and his family in Berea.

When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty in 1964, photographers were called upon to document the lives of the Appalachian people. During this time, Warren was hired by government agencies to photograph the region. “They wanted to show the needs of the Appalachian people in a way that was not degrading to anybody,” Brunner said. “That was a fine line: to show the needs but also show the strengths of the people.” Although such sensitivity to framing a fair and dignified portrait of Appalachian life became the defining feature of his work, Brunner is quick to acknowledge that such wasn’t the case with everyone sent into the field. “Some did it with more sensitivity than others,” Brunner said.

Although he grew up in Wisconsin, after spending 54 years photographing the region and getting to know its people, Warren now considers himself an Appalachian. “When people in the mountains ask me where I’m from, I say Berea,” he says. Reflecting on his career, which has resulted in thousands of photos of mountain scenery, people, traditions, crafts, and folkways, Brunner cited the relationships he had developed with the people as what he valued most. “Sometimes we’d just get in the car and go out into the woods and we might stay a couple of days, sometimes with the people there in their homes. And they call me up when something happens,” he says. “We help each other during times of need.”

Regarding his contributions to Appalachian culture, Warren simply sums up his extensive collection of photographs as a way to "give back to the mountains what the mountains have given to me." Brunner’s gift, as author James Still once observed, has “helped Appalachia see and remember itself.”

For those who missed the opening reception, there’s still opportunity to view the display. The exhibit will remain in the Appalachian Center Gallery until February 6, 2009.