Swann Room photo studio opens its doors

PRAIRIE CITY — The morning of the Swann Room’s grand opening Saturday, photographer Katherine McClure did something she could not have done before debuting the elegant photo studio in downtown Prairie City: arrange portrait shots for large extended families after holiday get-togethers.

More than 30 relatives gathered inside the refurbished space on the 100 block of West Jefferson Street for a set of professionally photographed snapshots — something that proved difficult for McClure when she managed her at-home business during the colder months.

“When the weather was bad, I couldn’t take the big families that were all home for the holidays,” she said. “Now I can say, ‘Yeah! Sure! The day after Thanksgiving? No problem!’”

The rehabilitated space, which is not 100 percent completed yet, serves as both a sizable photography studio with plenty of natural light shining through its newly installed windows and a rental venue perfect for small gatherings like baby showers or a dinner party.

McClure said she never had a commercial studio space for herself in her 16 years of business at Katherine McClure Photography. Most of the time she photographed her subjects on location with the help of lighting rigs.

“I took all my equipment into your barn or into your home or into an antique store,” McClure said, noting on-location shooting will still be an option for her clients. “This just gives me a place where, if it’s cold, we can still hang out.”

With 26 years of photo experience under her belt — she developed her first roll of film in the darkroom at age 12 — McClure knows the ins and outs of portrait photography. Curiously, her dream job was to become a fashion photographer, even going so far as studying advertising and commercial work at The Portfolio Center in Atlanta.

After a return home for the holidays, McClure spent a great deal of time photographing black-and-white, medium format portraits of her family members. When she shared the finished works with her fellow students upon her return to the graduate school, they commended her photographs and suggested her true calling was not going to be fashion shoots.

They told McClure, “Obviously, it’s going to be portraits for you.”

“It was so clear from that moment on I was going to work with everyday people because I could get a connection with them that was special,” she said.

Large prints of her work are displayed on the walls of the new Prairie City studio, next to the building’s vault, which now serves as a storage space for utilities. One photo stands out as McClure’s favorite: a black-and-white vertical shot of a gentleman casually sitting in front of a large and beautiful organ.

The man in the photo is McClure’s father. She had taken the photo in July and earned a judge’s ribbon at her last photo convention.

Pointing to the piece, McClure said, “My dad is a concert organist and this is the concert organ at the University of Alabama. I heard him play this when I was seven.”

Still dedicated to the art of photography, which has taken up much of her life, McClure is currently working toward her master’s degree from Professional Photographers of America, a long process that can take years to fully complete. The pieces on display, like the one featuring her dad, are all part of that process.

In time, McClure’s work toward her degree will conclude, as will the refurbishment of her new studio.

Excited for what’s to come, McClure cannot help but marvel at the Swann Room, named after her mother’s family name. Taking it all in, she remembers what the space used to look like and breathes a sigh of relief.

“A lot of people walked in and out of it and couldn’t see what I could see,” McClure said. “I saw it all along. I knew it was going to be beautiful.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com