Photo subject, 84, earns final awards

Mary Fisher Beverley is true to her word, even after death.

The 84-year-old Charlottesville woman, who died Nov. 4, not only promised son-in-law Jim Carpenter that she would win him a blue ribbon for photography, she has fulfilled the promise in spades.

“It’s really amazing and a little extraordinary,” said Mr. Carpenter, the 59-year-old owner of Gitchell’s Studio in Charlottesville. “She not only won me one blue ribbon, she won what amounts to the Triple Crown of photography.”

Long resume

Mr. Carpenter has been a professional photographer in Charlottesville for more than three decades, serving 22 years with The Daily Progress before buying Gitchell’s, the 100-year-old photography business specializing in portraits and events.

He’s won more than 100 Virginia Press Association awards for news photography and dozens of awards from professional photographers associations.

He understands how mercurial and capricious judges may be.

Photos with Mrs. Beverley as his subject, however, have won Mr. Carpenter numerous awards in the past. That, apparently, was a matter of pride for her, for she offered to give the photographer another honor.

“She had just gotten out of the hospital and wasn’t feeling very well, but she wanted to go to lunch so we had a family lunch at Red Lobster,” Mr. Carpenter recalled. “At dinner she said to me, ‘Jimbo, I have won lots of blue ribbons for you, but before I leave this world, I want to win you one more blue ribbon.’ I said ‘Sure Nanny, after dinner let’s go to the pavilion on our way home.’ So we did.”

At the Charlottesville Pavilion on the Downtown Mall the light proved right and the setting perfect.

“We were there for about 20 minutes using the chairs as props,” he recalled. “I made prints in black and white several days later and put them in her room. One night, as I sat with her, she looked at one photo and said, ‘Jim, that’s going to be a real winner for you.’ I told her I’d put it in the next contest. She died several weeks later.”

True to his word, Mr. Carpenter submitted the photo, among others, at a Virginia Professional Photographers Association competition. To his surprise, the picture won not only the promised ribbon, but first place for a portrait of a woman, a Fuji Masterpiece Award and the competition’s People’s Choice Award.

Then he submitted the photo in the regional competition, which includes states from Mississippi to Florida to Maine. Mrs. Beverley won for him another first place in Portrait of Woman and another Fuji Masterpiece Award.

Winner again

Next came the national PPA contest. The picture won again and was selected for the group’s permanent loan collection.

That, Mr. Carpenter said, is a big deal in more ways than one.

“It’s a prestigious award, to be included in the collection, and it’s quite a way to leave this world and leave behind a legacy, a gift,” he said.

“It’s hard to lose someone you love that much and seeing those pictures really helps provide a connection to her and to the past,” he said. “The fact that she promised one more blue ribbon and gave me so many awards; it’s almost like she’s got a hand in it.”