Molly O’Bryon-Welpott lives in the rural town of DuBois, Pennsylvania, in a house that was built in 1915. Many of her neighbours have lived in the same home for 50 years. “My office is upstairs and I can see the elementary school. The small room has lots of window light, original wood doors with old knobs, I am loving the POSSIBILITIES of what we can do with it. As we scrape wallpaper I have been trying to keep a teenie piece of each kind (there are tons) and I want to frame them together.”

Her surroundings are like her photographs – reflecting a layered history, a love of the rustic, and the persistence of people.

 

 

 

“I went to school for photography and graduated in 1995. My intentions were to be a magazine photographer. I got married and moved to a rural town. Before long people were asking me to do weddings, which I wanted no part of, but I gave it a go. Before I knew it my husband and I had a lot of our year full and the magazine went by the wayside. I also photographed inside factories. When we had our son in 2000, I decided time was the most precious thing, I stopped the weddings and commercial photography and decided to focus on my art. Marketing my work online has only really started to take shape in the past couple of years and I really enjoy it.

“For years I only photographed black and white film photography as my method of art. Five years ago I purchased my first digital camera and started to make color images. Because digital photography is always evolving and no one person can every know everything, I feel like with each new body of work my methods change as I experiment and try to learn new techniques. But all of my images start with the fundamentals of photography: subject, light and composition. And if it is going to be a color photograph I really try to make the color have a purpose.”

 

 

“My worst experience? Hmmm. Great question. There are probably so many, but right now the one that comes to mind was my first independent show, right when I moved to rural, PA. I was fresh out of school and a newlywed. My final body of work before I moved here were portraits inside of a Florida State Prison. My husband helped me create a space in a store that had closed down to display all of the handprinted and matted works. We even used the chain link fence as the structure to hang it on. My mom baked brownies and made fruit trays and I was expecting to have a full house…. That didn’t happen. It was a handful of people that ended up coming through. However, the ones that did come through turned out to be great people for me to meet in my new small town and I didn’t let it scar me too bad, I have since done several solo shows in this small town and they have been more successful.”

Molly says the most difficult thing in her career has been to choose marriage and children over “taking off with the carnival to make a documentary book (a dream I had for a very long time). But it is not so much an obstacle, just a speed bump. I probably won’t ever travel with the carnival, but as I grow as a person, there are other dreams I form and if they are meant to happen, they will eventually. I wouldn’t trade being a mother for anything.”

 

 

 

 

She is always amazed and inspired by the old master photographers, and overwhelmed at how these people could all photograph the same subject and no two would even feel similar. She believes deeply that this is only because they were so brilliantly true to themselves and made their work a real and pure style of their own. And this is her own dream too – to work consistently for a lifetime and produce a body of work that reflects her authentic spirit.

“My dear friend and mentor, Jack Welpott, a master photographer told me to ‘follow your muse.’ I try to follow this advice and not allow myself to get stuck in any boxes. I even titled my blog followmymuse after the words of wisdom.”

You can find more of Molly’s photography in her Etsy shop MollysMuses.

In her spare time, Molly is also does special work as a volunteer photographer for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep – a group of photographers helping grieving parents through the loss of a baby.

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With thanks to Molly for sharing her words and images here.