Waterford Fair

Waterford is down the road from me. Once a year the whole village opens its doors for the Fair: artisans working in the old houses, musicians walking the lanes in period dress, and a blacksmith drawing a crowd by the barns.
The Waterford Foundation asked me to photograph the 82nd Fair on Saturday morning, from the parking fields to the main stage.

Looking down on a table of pressed flowers, a basket of sunflowers and small jars in late light.

The Corner Store on the village street in Waterford, Virginia, with people at tables outside during the Fair.

A man in a tricorn hat painting a map at a table by a sunny window, framed flag prints around him.

A barbershop quartet in straw boaters, white shirts and red bow ties singing on the Waterford Fair stage.

A musician in colonial dress playing a mandolin as he walks past the Waterford post office, a woman in period costume behind him, Waterford, Virginia.

A woman in an 18th-century costume with curled hair, flowers and feathers, glancing back over her shoulder at the Waterford Fair.

Four musicians in period dress walking down a tree-lined lane at the Waterford Fair, Waterford, Virginia.

A potter in glasses and a patterned vest painting a plate at his wheel, shelves of stoneware behind him.

Looking down on a potter's worktable: an unfired clay plate, sponges in a tin, glaze pots and a wide brush.

A blacksmith in period dress working iron at the anvil while a crowd watches from behind a rope at the Waterford Fair.

Looking down on a table of wooden cookie molds as a woman in a bonnet and period dress shows a visitor how they work.

A dark stone passageway opening onto old stone steps and green plants in the village of Waterford, Virginia.

Carved gourd jack-o'-lanterns and painted gourds stacked on a craft booth on the grass in bright sun.

Black and white: a painter talking with a visitor in a barn gallery, her easel and a small landscape between them.

A performer in a red waistcoat throwing linking metal rings on a lawn, the audience watching from behind.

Black and white: an old schoolhouse chalkboard with lessons in cursive, a desk with books, an inkwell and flowers.

Black and white: fairgoers on the lane between white craft tents, a village house behind, Waterford Fair.

01/17

What this was

The 82nd Waterford Fair. Craft booths, music and demonstrations spread through the whole village: the old houses, the barns, the schoolhouse and the fields around them.