Documentary: A Lasting Thing for The World

A Lasting Thing for the World–The Life and Photography of Doris Ulmann
Written by Leatha Kendrick
Produced by Heather Lyons

Doris Ulmann, a noted New York photographer, spent the last several years of her life traveling through the southern Appalachian mountains in search of people whose way of life moved or intrigued her. Her work in Appalachia led her to photograph school children and college presidents, women at their looms and men carving animals from wood. Traveling companions from writer, Julia Peterkin, to folk musician John Jacob Niles, said that Doris’ drive to make photographs blocked out heat and fatigue during the day and kept her up nights developing the day’s prints. By the time of her death in 1934, she had created more than 10,000 portraits of the rural artists and craftspeople she affectionately termed, “my mountaineers”. Through Ulmann’s photographs and excerpts from her correspondence, archival film, interviews with historians, Dr. Melissa McEuen, Dr. Ron Pen, Loyal Jones, and David Featherstone, as well as individuals photographed by Ulmann, this documentary explores the life and work of one of America’s most important and prolific photographers. —From WorldCat citation for the film

Museum highlights a pioneering woman photographer, article about a 2018 exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art

Film event announcement, October 2018