This local stop was on the route
my father, Robert William Sutton, drove almost each work day, from Lockhaven,
on Hampton Boulevard, down Colley Avenue, and then on to Onley Road, ending
up at Sutton Manufacturing Corporation,
at 112 West Wilson Avenue. Dad knew Ruby for sure, as he was a local and
loyal customer for over 25 years at the DoNut Dinette.
Once with his Nikon camera, Dad took a wonderful shot from where he sat on his chosen vinyl morning stool [ 1 of the 15 described in the obit article], of what he usually stared at - the stack of plates on the stainless steel shelf. This simple everyday object done in black and white photograph, is in the tradition of art still life photograph, such as those done by Joseph Sudek, the famous Czechoslovakian photographer. Like him {Sudek} my Dad, "Red" Sutton, was committed to photographing the close world around him, the world he bumped into each day, his own first hand experiences, and by the genius of his vision he took the ordinary things things he saw, in this case the stack of white plates in his local breakfast stop, the DoNut Dinette, and transformed this humus into photographic art with depth and feeling. A sort of quest for the ordinary. {Read film critic/ philosopher - book: 'In Quest for The Ordinary- Lines of Skepticism AND Romanticism', by Stanley Cavell; University of Chicago Press, 1988}
I think that this 'Stack of white plates - DoNut Dinnette' photographed by Dad probably around 1977, was once shown in his exhibition at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia. It was included for sure in the local bank show, at Virginia National Bank , that was written about.
- See link: Virginia National Bank/News Release on Photographic Exhibition
of Robert William Sutton's Portfolio,February 28,1979
http://geocities.datacellar.net/clsutton45/photo_rw_sutton.html
I have a web link up to a page of this exhibition review in my small family site in yahoo.[Note: Joseph Sudek, was was working in the poetic tradition of Eugene Atget.
- Article: 'Josef Sudek's- Theater of Objects', by Jean Dykstra, from: Art on Paper Magazine, page 33, Volume 4 No. 1, September-October 1999. - Special on Photography issue.]
Another link between photography and the DoNut Dinette is that the current owner Sheila Mullins has a sort of in house exhibit of photo shots taken by various local artists of the place hanging up inside the cafe. Some are the DoNut Dinette, from the outside view of the diner on Colley Avenue, while others are photographs taken on the inside of the restaurant.
I took a few myself in May of 2002, and mailed them to Susan Mullins recently December of 2002/ or early Jan 2003. Mine were an echo of what my Father Robert had shot twenty or thirty years earlier; chose if not almost identical as the view was virtually unchanged as it was described by FRED KIRSCH in his article. Mine were in color, and Dad's were in black and white. At least I thought so until I got back to my studio in Toronto, Ontario, and upon looking at Dad's plates shelf photo I thought that Dad's are superior to mine, as his hold that magic just right vision, the contrast of the black under shelf bracket weighed in as a counter point to the stack of grey white plate edges. I also did a few portraits of Sheila, taken while she was at work making a supply order; sitting on one of the now famous stools.
Anyway, here is the link and the text to the obituary of Ruby Schneider Massengill, mother of Sheila 'Lynne' S. Mullins, current owner and president of T/A DoNut Dinette of Norfolk, Virginia.
Added POST NOTE: {now added to SUTTON?DAVIS SITE:
I do not think that my father, Robert William Sutton was influenced by Joseph Sudek. At least I never heard Dad speak of Sudek's work and I can't remember talking about Sudek with my father. Dad probably knew of his photographs from various photographic journals that he subscribed to but Sudek was not widely touted in the 1970's. I came into contact with knowledge of Joseph Seduk's photographic work via my ex art dealer in New York City, Salander/ O'Reilly. Now run by Lawrence Salander, who exhibit Seduk's photographs. by Carol Lorraine Sutton, January 19, 2003.
January 19, 2003
