Better than free checking

“Collie Payne and Steer, Berry,” 1800 x 1514, Tim Barnwell.

John Dickson is consumed by two passions: his native Western North Carolina mountains and photography. As president of Asheville Savings Bank, he’s found a way to generously share his interests with the community.

Before the restoration of the bank’s downtown location, a project which in 2005 won the coveted Griffin Award, its walls were hung with a few oversized landscapes and typical bank lobby art. Now the bank boasts a fine collection of photographs of Western North Carolina, all taken by Western North Carolina photographers.

Dickson chose photographs by native and near-native artists who have demonstrated respect for the area’s culture and beauty, such as Tim Barnwell, who’s turned his lens on local rural lives and landscapes, and Rob Amberg and Ben Porter, transplants who have documented the irretrievable loss of virgin mountaintops and fields.

“I wanted the collection to focus on the now,” says Dickson. “There is nothing here older than 1980.”

“Ethel’s,” 16×20 silverprint, John Dickson.

Although the photographs are relatively new, many of them cast a backward glance toward the past. On a corner office wall, there are two photos Dickson took of the view from the room’s window before the Kress building renovation. In a hallway, Porter’s panoramic photograph of the Amboy Road racetrack reminds the bank’s clients of Asheville’s historic ties to NASCAR. The photo is a sweeping view of race fans in the bleachers, the concession and announcer’s stand, with blurs of cars whizzing past.

Dickson says he had no trouble maintaining a focus for the collection. “There are no New York skylines, no sailboats and no beach scenes. I had in mind photographs reflecting our own cultural history, as well as our natural history.”

Amberg’s dedicated effort to tell the story of Highway I-26’s relentless march through Madison County has provided a record of beauty lost and life changed. He has taken a poignant picture of contentment: a woman sits on her porch breaking beans while a younger woman serenades her with a guitar.

Barnwell has several works in the collection depicting strong bonds between mountain families and their animals: hounds, horses and a plowing steer named Berry. There are extraordinary photos of farmers working on impossibly steep hillsides and landscapes of stunning beauty.

Dickson has a number of his own works in the collection, including photos of still ponds in autumn and distant mountain vistas. There is an especially beautiful image of an empty chair in John Cram’s lovely Kenilworth Garden, but the close-up images of a deserted house in Spring Creek he remembers visiting as a child resonate with fond memories.

The 90 or so carefully and intelligently selected works provide a window into the past for future generations. And Dickson isn’t finished: “There is space in the boardroom for some vintage photos, some of the structures that were here in 1936 when the bank opened, and photographs of famous people who lived here.” When the Museum of Modern Art in New York re-opened after a major renovation, its first exhibition was a selection of works from a remarkable collection belonging to a financial institution. How great would it be if all the medical offices, insurance offices and banks in Asheville had someone with Dickson’s good eye and commitment to fill them with works of art?

[Connie Bostic is an Asheville-based painter and writer.]

The Asheville Savings Bank’s collection of photos of Western North Carolina is on permanent exhibition at the bank. To view the entire collection, call 250-8430.