An abandoned school bus rusts in a creek in "Bridge Out," shot in Cedar Key, Fla.If you go
› What: Vintage Across America photography exhibit› Where: Artcrafters, 1356 Market St., Dayton, Tenn.› Store hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays Feb. 7-16; closed Sundays and Mondays› Admission: Free› Information: 423-775-1401
Michele Munyak has an eye for rural nostalgia.
Those weather-beaten barns that look like a stiff breeze could obliterate them or rust-eaten antique trucks that make you consider when you last had a tetanus shot aren't roadside debris to her. They are little slices of Americana; history that is gradually disappearing in a tech-savvy age.
Munyak's hobby is photographing these back-road landscapes across rural America. A collection of her photos, "Vintage Across America," will be displayed at Artcrafters in Dayton, Tenn., beginning Tuesday and continuing through Feb. 16.
Dianne Knappen, who owns Artcrafters with husband Dennis, says their goal is to feature artists each month on the walls of their business to give them exposure to the local arts community. This will be Munyak's second exhibit at Artcrafters.
Munyak, 66, is a self-taught photographer who began shooting in the mid-1970s. She sells her images, often framed in repurposed wood or transferred onto slate trivets, under the name Never Ready Photography.
"That's me," she laughs, "never ready. There are more pictures I have missed over the years because, sure enough, the minute I shut the camera off, something comes by that is fleeting, like a hawk or a wild animal."
She shoots with a Canon XS 50 HS or Canon SX60 HS, which she likes for its zoom capability "because I have no patience for changing lenses. Most of the time I aim and shoot and, if it comes out good, I'm happy."
Munyak was a dispatcher for the Sarasota, Fla., Police Department when she met her future husband, Joseph, the department's dive instructor. They recently marked their 40th wedding anniversary.
"My husband and I were both scuba divers and I started with underwater photography," she says. "We had friends who lived in Ten Mile, Tenn., and we used to come up in the summer and spend a week or so on the lake with them."
After Joe retired, the couple decided to move here and bought a home in Spring City, Tenn.
"Underwater photography was the main thing I did until we moved up here. I saw so much wildlife here! And I loved the old barns. From old barns, I got involved with shooting vintage trucks - I don't prefer the restored ones, I like the ones still around that look like they've been rode hard and put up wet," she describes.
As the couple roamed the back roads of the East Tennessee and the rural South, she became captivated with the number of derelict barns she discovered.
"They are usually still in use - and I'm amazed that they are still standing," she laughs. "We'll stop and, if I see anybody in the yard, I'll ask would they mind if I take a picture. I've actually had people take me on tours of their old barns."
With this area's history of painted barns as promotional signs for See Rock City, Munyak has found a wealth of material to shoot. Still, she feels like her work is documenting a dying piece of history.
"These roadside landmarks are being lost. Right now there are at least four (she has photographed) that are no longer there."
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.