Stage Talk with Rick Koster
Where every show has something to say.
We want a full house for empty chairs — Other People’s Chairs, specifically
WAIT!
Before you read this … are you sitting down?
No, not in that way where a law enforcement person knocks on the door and asks in preparatory fashion so you don’t faint over the awful news you’re about to hear.
In fact, we want you to think about not sitting — and specifically not in chairs.
Because, at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Garde’s intimate Oasis Room, we’re helping Waterford photographer Debbie McGrath celebrate the publication of her beautiful coffee table book Other People’s Chairs.
McGrath, who happily proclaims her photography as the work of “a complete novice,” is 50 years old, typically utilizes digital photography, and has been actively shooting photographs since she was gifted with a camera as a kid. “Photography is a complete hobby and I just think I have an eye for it in my own way,” she says. “Putting this book together is my first attempt at anything professional.”
A three-time cancer survivor who was officially declared cancer-free as of March 2024, Debbie is married to Casey McGrath, works as the Office Manager at Walter Electric LLC in New London and is President of the Southeastern Connecticut Women’s Network. She and Casey have a cat named Poopie.
Tickets to the Other People’s Chairs event are $100 and include a signed copy, a discussion and conversation with Debbie about the book, music from DJ JAYPO, light refreshments and a cash bar. Framed and printed selections from the book’s photography will be available for purchase Thursday only, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting the Garde Arts Center’s P:ACE (Partners: Arts. Community. Education.) programs.
In conversation on a dreary summer day, Debbie is buoyant, given to laughter and humor, and intriguingly insightful about the interaction between her photography and life. The transcript is lightly edited for space and clarity.
Garde: A lot of kids get cameras when they’re young. But what instantly captivated you about the magical possibilities?
Debbie: Um, I was a huge fan of Richard Marx. And all of my friends had Richard Marx posters hanging up in their rooms, but I didn’t because I wasn’t allowed to. I was too young. So, I would start taking pictures of my friend’s posters in their rooms. And then I had pictures of Richard Marx. See? This is stuff you can’t make up, Rick!
Garde: That’s clever and resourceful and funny. And … Richard Marx!
Debbie: I know, right? My Mom probably has a lot of them. I did find an old picture of me wearing a Richard Marks shirt and holding my first camera, though.
Garde: How old were you when this Marxian intersection of music and photography took place?
Debbie: According to my Mom, I was 11 when that picture was taken. She gave me a camera when I was eight but it never really worked, so I kept hounding my parents for my own camera and so they gave me the pink “Le Clic Camera” in the picture when I was 10 or 11. I spent all my babysitting money of film and developing the pictures in local stores.
Garde: We’ll call that Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl Wearing a Richard Marx T-shirt. Did you study photography in college or anything?
Debbie: Nope, I did not. I’m a complete novice. Um, I just, I just think I have an eye and I’m not any kind of professional except for to, to put this book together with photography. It’s just a hobby.
Garde: We hate to ask authors where they get their ideas, but it would be fun to know if you were in fact sitting in an interesting chair when you came up with the concept.
Debbie: No. Actually, I was hanging out with my friend Heather and we were in old Saybrook and it was wintertime. About 10 or 15 years ago. I remember we were freezing and walking along the beach and there was, you know, this rich people’s house along the shoreline and they had some Adirondack chairs up on their lawn.
And I said, “You know, we should sit in their chairs” and then it hit me and I said, “I can write a book about other people’s chairs.”
Heather was like, “Yeah, you know, I’m not sure about that.” But…
Garde: At that point, did you in fact sit in the rich persons’ chair?
Debbie: Yeah, I did. And the chair is in the book. There were two of them, in North Baybrook. And that was the start.
Garde: But the chairs have to be empty. Do you think there’s any deep psychological reason for that? I was wondering if the fact the chairs are empty might symbolize loneliness or longing — though that seems pretty limiting.
Debbie: Right. The empty chairs represent time spent there — like whoever sat there before: what were they thinking? Or listening to or seeing. Or, if someone’s sitting in another person’s chair, is that like walking in someone else’s shoes? I’d been taking pictures of chairs before that, not on purpose. I don’t know why.
And that day it just sunk in. There’s no reason, no super fun story to go along with that. But I’ll see, like, even empty chairlifts at Sugar Loaf Mountain in Maine — just empty seats, empty pairs. And I want to capture them.
Garde: What’s the weirdest chair in the book?
Debbie: One that was made out of lobster traps. It was in Maine at a restaurant and I was like, oh, that’s definitely the coolest chair I’ve ever seen, at least in terms of eclectically weird. It was exciting.
Garde: Did you sit in the lobster trap chair?
Debbie: I did not, but only because it was outside and it was raining.
Garde: How far and wide have you traveled looking for chairs that we’re being sat in?
Debbie: Only in the United States. I’ve lived in a lot of places, but as far as chairs go, just California, Florida and a lot of New England.
Garde: Once you start compiling images with the idea of a book in mind, did you start consciously thinking you might need certain types of chairs or settings to broaden the idea?
Debbie: No. But what I did know, once I’d decided I was going to create this book, was that I absolutely wanted to have the Dutch tavern in it, and I wanted to have the Garde in it. I had a zillion pictures of both places, but in all of those photos, I just didn’t capture the right image for either one.
So, at the very last minute, I went to the Dutch and I went to the Garde and I took a bunch more photos. And it worked. I was able to get what I consider the best shots of what I was trying to portray of each place.
Garde: Excellent. And I suppose that sense of respective context accounts for the accompanying text in the form of anecdotes and impressions?
Debbie: Some of the pictures automatically came with stories I just wanted to tell. Others, the images just suggested or inspired something. One picture shows a wooden bench that has this intricate wave etched in. And when I saw it, the thought literally entered my head: “Sometimes we make our own waves.” And that’s all it needed.
Garde: Perfect. At the same time, the cover is a wonderful image of a weathered chair on a beach. It’s like it has decades of stories, if that makes any sense.
Debbie: Yes! That’s on the Cape, and it just reminded me in a way of a Kenny Chesney song called “Old Blue Chair,” which was a big hit.
Garde: Even I know that song! It’s a ballas about nostalgia and bittersweet memories that he associates with sitting in (what is his very real) chair on the beach, just reflecting on his life.
Debbie: Right. I quote from the song and the lyrics, then I talk about the shades of blue in the photograph and the idea of blues music as well as the emotions that can be triggered by various shades of blue. There are all kinds of blues and meanings, and I just enjoyed thinking about that.
Garde: Did you like the song and decide you needed to find your own old blue chair for the book?
Debbie: I think I found the chair first. I mean, I’ve known the song because it’s been on the radio a long time. But I was by myself on the Cape and had recently had a cancer diagnosis, and I just needed to get away. So I drove up to the Cape and went to a healing center for a week and that song was going through my head.
I saw that chair, I just thought, “You know what? This is the cover of my book. And at that moment the idea of doing the book became very real. The diagnosis gave me the resolve. And that particular chair, I just thought, you know, “When I write this, when I do it, when I put it together — this is the epitome of what I want to share.”
Garde: That’s a remarkable and profound story with a happy ending. Speaking of such things: If it wasn’t for Christmas trees, would you even be having this book launch at the Garde?
Debbie (laughs): What happened is, a while back, Jeanne Sigel needed a pickup truck to help to move some stuff to the Garde for some scenes they were filming for a Hallmark Christmas movie … So we took my truck and went and got these Christmas trees for the film. While we were driving, Jeanne asked about how the book was going and I just sort of said, “Well, cancer kind of booted me to do it.”
And Jeanne just immediately said, “Well, when you’re ready to release the book, we’re doing it at the Garde.” And I was overwhelmed. What an awesome opportunity! I couldn’t believe it — and now it’s happening this Thursday. I’m incredibly excited and grateful.