An unidentified man, possibly a war veteran, as captured by the Huntington and Bagley photo studio

There’s a novel waiting to be written in the basement of the Harold B. Lee Library. Or — considering the visuals — maybe a film or limited series for the small screen.

The essential treatment is ripe for development. At the start of the 20th century, two young apprentices in a photography studio decide to go on their own, setting up shop across the street from their mentor. They are both single. Deaf since age four, she’s an orphan who was raised by relatives. Seven years her junior, he was raised by his grandparents and began his career as a beekeeper before joining the photography studio. For more than three decades they capture the life of Springville and surrounding communities, whether from within the walls of their brick studio or by criss-crossing the countryside (sometimes in a motorcycle) with a temporary tent studio. And in their spare time, at least for a time, they enjoy themselves behind the lens, creating playful images not wholly appropriate to the rural Utah town they live in. Soon after the business partnership begins, he marries and begins raising a family. She remains single. For three decades they continue the business relationship, including for a decade after his wife’s death. After he suffers a heart attack at age 60, and with two children still in his household, they marry. When he dies six weeks later, she chooses not to raise the children.

These are the general historical facts, most of which are sketched out by Marissa Bischoff, Halyn Attwooll, Brenna Cooper and Lettie Burton, curators of Celebration of Life: The Huntington & Bagley Studio on the bottom floor of Brigham Young University’s library. To the novelist or filmmaker remains the task of fleshing out the details and exploring the why behind the facts.

A selection of photos from Celebration of Life: The Huntington & Bagley Studio at the Harold B. Lee Library, photo by Shawn Rossiter

The photographs Elfie Huntington and Joseph Bagley produced, a selection of which are on display, should surely be used for the storyboard. The vast majority are of what you might expect: portraits of families, wedded couples and mothers and babies. But the wedding party in front of a darkened church, the dancers around a Maypole, family dinners in an outdoor setting, hikers in hooped skirts — all could be brought to life as living tableaux. The most striking image — of a confident and nonchalant man, an arm propped on one prosthetic leg while the other prosthetic is staged neatly beneath — should definitely make a cameo.

Be sure to let the imagination wander with the playful images created by the pair. In one, Huntington and a friend turn their backs to the camera, hiking their dresses between their legs so they look like trousers. The pose is, let’s say, irreverent. In another, Huntington sits on a man’s lap, the pair partially obscuring their faces with a hat. Is the man Bagley? And if so, when was the photograph taken? In another photo Bagley is identified as the man who is pretending to smoke a cigar and tipping a bottle of liquor to Huntington while two lounging men look on. The curators provide some notes that may be helpful: the LDS Church’s injunction against tobacco and alcohol was not made official until 1921; the trouser shot may have “allowed [Huntington] to creatively address the difficulty of fixed gender roles in that time period …” But plenty of room is left for the would-be writer to flex her muscles. What story might we spin of the image, taken later in her life, of Huntington with her eyes so swollen they are almost shut? And what should we make of the image of a young man gazing at a woman in beekeeping apparel?

An irreverent pose by Elfie Huntington and friend.

The historian works in two opposing directions. In one, she simplifies, creating broad, understandable narratives out of the messy details of human experience.  In another, when that narrative has solidified and become so constricted that no life or insight may flow through it, she must restore the detail, expand the narrative. Celebration of Life: The Huntington & Bagley Studio does the latter, using the photographs of this pair from the last century to open our gaze and ask what stories have been left untold.

Celebration of Life: The Huntington & Bagley Studio, Harold B. Lee Library, Level 1 (Brigham Young University), Provo, through May 13.

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.