The "Mr. Urban Monical Was My Hero" Story

The following story brings back many memories of my college years at Millersville State Teacher's College in Millersville, Pennsylvania.  My favorite courses in the Industrial Arts Department were Photography I and II.  My teacher for both of those classes was Mr. Urban Monical.  With this information...you can read on... 

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about a photographer by the name of Benita VanWinkle who traveled the county to document vanishing theaters.  Her story is remarkable and brought back so many memories of my photography classes at Millersville.  She too was a student in photography that reminded me so much of myself.  Her story could have been mine!

For one of her first assignments in Photography I class in college, she chose to document an old cinema near my hometown of Largo, Florida.  The Carib was the heart of her community--a place of understanding, education and exposure to new ideas.  Two years after she had  photographed it, the Carib was torn down.  She started thinking about how closely our identities are tied to the places we grow up in.  That's how she started shooting other towns' old theaters.  This was in the '80s, when these places were just starting to disappear, often replaced by malls or parking lots.  In 1982, there were about 13,000 movie theaters around the country. By 2020, the were less than half that number.  She shot 940 theaters to date, during breaks from her job as a college professor of art.  Every time she goes to a new (old) theater, she gets to hear about its history from the locals.  Documenting these community spaces is her life's work, a never-ending passion project,  Even if these theaters are disappearing, there are still more than enough to last her a lifetime.  Her hope is that people will see her work and realize how important it is to have a community space for everyone, regardless of religion, identity or political views.  We need to preserve the kinds of spaces that bring people together, teach us to love one another in spite of our differences and anchor us to the places that raised us. -- As told to Julie Goldenberg.  Benita Van Winkle, 64, is an associate professor at High Point University in North Carolina.