Remembering Harris Harstfield

Harris [Hartsfield] embraced his work here with a buoyancy and curiosity that inspired and drew out the best in his students. - Brian Wogensen, English Teacher

REMEMBERING MR. HARRIS HARTSFIELD photographer. mentor. friend. teacher.

I want to extend a collective embrace from our community to Harris’ family and honor a great man, a man whose presence shaped and shapes so many students and fellow teachers and friends. Harris embraced his work here with a buoyancy and curiosity that inspired and drew out the best in his students. I am grateful for his mind, his stories, his wit, his growling, bellowing exuberance, the way a mock stern face would burst into a smile.

I am grateful that he said yes so often to my queries and requests. Yes to the lush, golden cowardly lion costume I asked him to wear during our celebration of Wizard of Oz. A costume he reveled in despite its form fitting qualities.

But his lack of guile I admire above all. He told it like it was, truth without trappings, a clear point of view. You girls know this better than anyone. In his sphere students understood quickly that he cared fully – at the level of pastoral care – he sought to comfort and to be honest. And he cared enough to challenge and to push and to pose the question that might lead out from somewhere or into somewhere else for that girl at that moment. The photo room was sometimes an eye in the psychic storm for students, and I have read so many posts and missives that eloquently and passionately express this fact. His impact is truly profound.

I am grateful for his conversation, as I know many of us are. I think that when I talked to him, sat with him, over the past 13 years, I was loosened – he lightened the titans a bit. On occasional walkabouts around the school I often ended up in the photo room, or I would purposely head to the back parking lot at the end of the day through the art hallway to get a few words in that often, before I realized it, had stretched out to many words. He was a great talker – politics, art, race, history, civil rights. And often what we talked about was Archer girls. Their photos, their ability, their challenges, their needs.... I am grateful too, for Harris’ eye and the art he shared. The first time I looked at one of his Slot Canyon photos it tricked me – I thought it was some rich fabric blowing in the wind. His photos of Archer made me see this environment and these girls anew. I have had the postcard from his Tenacity exhibit up in my classroom for years, and every day that boy’s eyes look out at me and test me....

I am both happy and sad in the photo room now. There is a giant poster in there – the cover art for Hendrix’s Axis / Bold as Love album with Jimi and the band blended into a Hindu devotional painting. I associate the poster with Harris, and I think that expression sums him up – Bold as Love. He was Bold as Love....

I miss Harris. I will continue to miss him. I will keep open what he gave.