Max Tharpe: Master Photographer

This week I have a most interesting house guest. He is Max Tharpe, age 87 and a half. When I was a teenager in bobby socks in the fifties he was the ubiquitous photographer who walked all over town with two black box cameras around his neck, taking human interest photos of children, young people, families, farms and churches in rural Iredell county. Loved by neighbors and townspeople for his laughter and admired for his artistry, he worked hours and hours in his dark room at Tharpe's Tourist Home which was run by his mother, Jaimie. He mailed photos from his photo library all over the country, and his mailbox was full of envelopes each day with checks. (Maybe seven dollars at the most!) During at least three decades he literally put Statesville, NC on the map. My best friend Prudy was on a cover of the summer issue of State Magazine in the early fifties in a swimming pool photo, enjoying a vanilla ice cream cone!! Other locals, such as a lonesome little country boy named leaning on a screen door were picked up on the wires by the Washington Herald Post. Max left North Carolina in the mid 70's for Florida where he retired, taking care of his mother. Now he is blessed by a "chosen daughter" Barbara whom he met 26 years ago at church who is his caretaker, friend and "tour guide" for a six week tour of all the places Max has been wanting to visit. This has included visits to the air and space museum in DC, the site for the Wright Brothers flight in NC, the Creation Museum in Kentucky, and two weeks in his old hometown where he has walked some familiar streets in his brand new neon green Crocs. The town is honoring him, thanking him for generously donating 6,000 historical photos to Mitchell Community College to be shared with all the Max Tharpe fans and those who want to learn more not only about local history but about real life.
His gift was capturing ordinary moments which tug at all our memories. "In my work I was always trying to please God. He was the director. " From his fans, a chorus is rising, "Thanks be to God for this person who has touched many lives in ways we will never know."