Thursday, June 29, 2000 Older Editions

Capturing an original

By Rebecca Piro

Deemed a great documentary photographer of Andover by his peers, Richard Graber has preserved much of the town's history -- both the people and the places -- in the form of photographs.

But after two years of leaving his camera idle, it seems that the work of this Andover documentarian has reached its conclusion.

Suspended act -- Lauded photographer Richard Graber peers up from his work.

After several decades of recording Andover's changing landscape photographically, as well as snapping shots of area people and his own family, Graber has not picked up his camera recently due to personal and health reasons.

In particular, he says that one thing has changed his heart for good towards Andover: "The thing about Andover is that it isn't as interesting anymore. It's so glossy."

And Richard Graber was never about taking glossy photographs of Andover.

"He was a great," says David Rodger, owner of Andover Books & Prints on Park Street, where Graber held a show of his work years ago. "He was able to see things about people and capture it on film in a way that was extraordinary. He did not like posed shots; he liked to capture people doing what they were doing and their emotions at the moment."

It is those unique moments of the past preserved that stand out in Graber's photographs. Many residents feel they are invaluable treasures for Andover.

But while some of these black-and-white photographs can be seen at the Collins Center, Memorial Hall Library or behind the counter at Raspberries, one of Andover's delicatessens, most of Graber's collection has never been seen by the public. Most of it is stored within the walls of his Andover home.

Interested in the interesting

The home of Graber is one of a private man, hidden away from the road by thick clusters of trees and greenery. The rustic old house and big picture window suggest an aura of hidden artistry, and what lies within are the packed-away treasures of a man who has been busy at work for many years. The walls are lined by his own pictures, matted on black, of times when this artist was captivated by the oddities and charms of Andover. Boxes of photographs are clustered around his living area, and handcrafted album after album -- which he is quick to state he created for his own enjoyment -- are stacked all around.

"I'm interested in anything that's interesting," he says, and his subjects range widely from town scenes to intimate family moments.

An attentive father, Graber encouraged artistic inclinations in his two daughters, and recalled his late wife as "a good model" for many of his photographs. He says that his taste ranges to whatever grabs his eye. Graber's albums of Andover pictures are filled with overgrown backyards, unusual characters and quaint downtown buildings.

"This is Andover!" he exclaimed, rifling through a hand-made album of such people and places. "Where do you find people like that today?"

When the photographer moved from his birthplace of Goshen, Indiana to New England back in the '60s, it was Andover's rustic, unusual flair that captured his interest and led Graber to start taking the photos that presently are some of the only clues to Andover's past. With Cole's hardware store on Main Street replaced in the Barnard Building, and coffee chains in place of Ford's Coffee Shop, Andover took on a generic, cookie-cutter feel that Graber had not encountered when he first discovered the town.

Graber's love of photography all started when he was appointed yearbook photographer at Goshen College in Indiana. "I had no camera and no skills," he said. "One of my friends said the reason I was good was because I didn't know what I was doing. Therefore I couldn't copy anyone."

Graber adopted a Rolleiflex camera, a twin-lens German model that does not use batteries and projects a backwards image to the photographer. To this day he does not own a standard 35-millimeter model.

"I'm the wave of the past," he said jokingly. "There's a high-tech revolution going on, with computer-generated types of stuff, and I don't know anything about it."

Graber once tried to use a 35-millimeter camera and could not adapt to it, said Andover photographer Ed Eich, who first came into contact with Graber when Graber was doing photography for Phillips Academy in the '70s. "He held it up to my face and could not work with it, because it was what we considered normal." Graber also created his own developing techniques for processing film, Eich added. "He's truly self-taught."

When Graber first moved to Andover, he set up shop in the Musgrove building, where he first began photographing the downtown images for which he is known. He later moved to a Park Street studio, which happened to be directly behind a fire station -- "it had a beautiful bell tower," Graber recalled -- which the town decided to tear down in the '70s. A series of Graber's photographs capture the station's stages of demolition. "They tore it down basically for a dozen parking spaces," Graber said with sadness.

As the community became adjusted to seeing Graber with a camera around his neck, the town accepted him as one of their own. "People would just give me tips. Everybody knew me," he said. A private man, Graber would quietly blend with the crowd he wanted to photograph, the soft click of the Rolleiflex going unnoticed by his subjects. "He was an observer. He was there to record," said Rodger simply.

When Graber finally moved his studio back into his home to take care of his family, he stopped taking pictures of the downtown area. "I quit taking pictures of downtown because I wasn't there," he says. But his pictures of the past are a treasure to him. "I'm glad I took the pictures that I did," he said.

Andover may not realize the gems they have in Graber's work and in the artist himself, Eich said.

"I don't think he will ever be credited for his genius and talent until he's long gone," he said. "But I'd like to see his work honored while he's around."

The value of art always grows over time, Eich added, and for this reason Graber's photos will be worth much more with the passing of decades. "He took the time to record life in Andover," Eich said. "He's created very useful historical documents, and he had such an eye for catching people in the context of the places they were in. When people look at Andover, they'll be flummoxed as to what it was like 30 years ago."

His work has been the spotlight of a few gallery shows since he started in Andover, Graber said, opening in spots such as the Andover Books & Prints store and Howard Yezerski & Gallery, located in the 1980s on Park Street, but now on Newbury Street in Boston.

With his talent, Graber could have easily expanded his own studio to a much greater volume, Rodger said, but he enjoyed the personal aspect too much.

"He could have had a large, regional business, but that isn't what he wanted. He liked doing work for people he knew, and he liked total control over his own work," Rodger said.

Graber's future is uncertain, he says, but he hopes it includes opportunities to print pictures from the hundreds of negatives that he never finished. In addition, he is considering contacting the Andover Historical Society about putting some photos on display.

Graber would like to see his photos exhibited somewhere so the public can discover what he has stashed away. But because of the amount of work he has stored at home, no place around town is quite big enough to hold it all, he said.