|
Sheep's Calling |
Just before the Presidential Election in 1964, I was driving the back roads in Northwestern New Jersey looking for animal farms to photograph. I happened upon Mrs. Jensen’s sheep farm in the little hamlet of Vienna. Mrs. Jensen, a woman then in her ‘80’s, ran the farm alone and did not welcome visitors. The front of her home was overgrown with bushes and vines and was almost hidden from view. At the end of her driveway the mailbox was covered, as were the posts and trees, with “No Trespassing” signs. However I noticed after leaving my car, a poster on the side of her mailbox, “Goldwater in ’64.” I proceeded to the house on foot (cameras in hand) and knocked on the rickety old door.. After a few knocks Mrs. Jensen appeared and asked me my reason for being there. I thought fast and replied, “I’m campaigning for Barry Goldwater and would like to take some pictures of your animals”. She said (with a thick Swedish accent), “since it’s for Mr. Goldwater it’s OK but no pictures of me, just the sheep.” I agreed and she then came out with a bucket and proceeded to call her sheep by name as she rapped on the pail. I put on a 400mm lens and got down in the bushes about 100 feet away and waited.
My best Photo from that session was one I call “Sheep’s Calling”. I never saw Mrs. Jensen again after the shooting session, and I’m sure that she never knew that she was in the best photo of the shoot, and exhibited in amateur photo salons all over the world. Perhaps her modest claim to immortality.
In late 1996 my wife and I visited some dear friends in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Knowing Retired Senator Barry Goldwater still maintained an office in the area, I brought a copy of the photo along with the written story of Mrs.Jensen. Due to his poor health, Mr. Goldwater was not personally receiving visitors, so I made sure that his secretary received the photo and article to present to him. I was aware that Mr. Goldwater was an avid amateur photographer in his younger days, and in fact belonged to the Photographic Society of America, as I did many years ago. A few weeks later I received a nice letter from him thanking me for the “wonderful tale of Mrs. Jensen” and the photograph. He also thanked me for “campaigning” for him in 1964. Mr. Goldwater has since passed away. A friend of mine from Phoenix visiting the Northeast last year (2002) told me that she recently had met Mrs. Goldwater in Phoenix. They began discussing photography and Mrs. Goldwater told my friend that she had hanging in her home, this wonderful old photo of a Mrs. Jensen, from Vienna, NJ, tending her sheep, taken by a New Jersey photographer, Dan Nolan
It certainly is a small world !
The sheep farm in NJ is no more, but Mrs. Jensen’s granddaughter resides in the old farmhouse, which has been extensively remodeled. My brother, who still keeps in touch with the family, has presented the young Ms. Jensen with a mahogany-framed version of her Grandmother’s photo. A photo that neither she nor her Grandmother ever knew existed. It is now hanging in the old farmhouse - Mrs. Jensen’s home.
|
