REAL PEOPLE/PLACES THAT FORM US
The Last Picture Show
Photographer Benita VanWinkle travels the country to document vanishing theaters
Benita VanWinkle with some of her photographs.
FOR ONE OF MY first assignments as a photography major in college, I chose to document an old cinema near my hometown of Largo, Florida. The Carib was the heart of my community—a place of understanding, education and exposure to new ideas.
Two years after I’d photographed it, the Carib was torn down. I started thinking about how closely our identities are tied to the places we grow up in. That’s how I started shooting other towns’ old theaters. This was in the ’80s, when these places were just starting to disappear, often replaced by malls or parking lots. In 1982, there were about 13,000 movie theaters around the country. By 2020, there were less than half that number.
Clockwise from top left, The State Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan; the Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Virginia; and the El Rey Theater in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I’ve shot 940 theaters to date, during breaks from my job as a college professor of art. Every time I go to a new (old) theater, I get to hear about its history from the locals. Documenting these community spaces is my life’s work, a never-ending passion project. Even if these theaters are disappearing, there are still more than enough to last me a lifetime.
My hope is that people will see my work and realize how important it is to have a community space for everyone, regardless of religion, identity or political view. We need to preserve the kinds of spaces that bring people together, teach us to love one another in spite of our differences and anchor us to the places that raised us. —As told to Julie Goldenberg
Benita VanWinkle, 64, is an associate professor at High Point University in North Carolina.