Christopher Keyes

With this piece, Norfolk Now is launching a new series to get to know our neighbors better and to find common ground by talking about our relationship to our exceptional town.

How did you come to Norfolk? 
I came to know Norfolk through friends in the late ’90s. I recall a walk up Dennis Hill to view meteor showers. A close friend had a great little apartment in the Arcanum which passed from friend to friend until it became mine.

What do you do here? 
I work in circulation in our beautiful library.

What’s the best part of your job? 
The best part of my job is daily interaction with our wonderful community, helping patrons find materials, and hanging out talking about books and movies all day. I also really enjoy serving as a docent, of sorts, informing visitors about the history of the building.

Tell me about your photography. What equipment and subject matter do you shoot? 
I’m a dedicated film photographer. As tools, film cameras have character and are complex jewels made of aluminum, nickel, etc. I’m drawn to them as objects as well as tools that make art. I work with Nikon and Leica 35mm as well as Mamiya medium format. As subjects, I love water in all forms: lakes, oceans, rivers. Portals as well––windows, doors, trails––and I’m especially drawn to abandoned homes and factory space. The former presence of people and the things they left behind. In an old house I think of the lives lived, the love made, the work accomplished. With the right eyes you can still see it lingering.

What’s your creative process like? 
I think patience and the willingness to go back to that place and wait for the right light and what Cartier-Bresson called the “decisive moment” is the key to all of it for me.

You are one of the town’s librarians. What are you reading these days?
I’m perpetually rereading novels by Haruki Murakami, and the poetry of Wallace Stevens and David Whyte. Recently, I enjoyed “The Memory Police,” by Yoko Ogawa. Over the last few years I’ve been drawn, for some reason, to Japanese writers.

Favorite all time books? Why?
Michael Herr’s “Dispatches,” Murakami’s “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles,” John Irving’s “A Prayer For Owen Meany,” Jack Kerouac’s “Maggie Cassidy.” They are all books that greatly impacted me at various stages of my life.

Are there authors or photographers you’d like to meet? If so, what would you say to them? 
I wouldn’t know what to say to them other than thanking them for what their work said to me.

What do you like best about living in Norfolk? What do you like least? 
Living in Norfolk has changed my life for the better in every way. I love the trails, the sense of community, village life, the way Norfolk has always embraced the arts, especially music and the visual arts. It’s close proximity to New York, Boston and the Berkshires. Frankly, there’s nothing I don’t like about Norfolk. I do lament the loss––let’s be honest, one show a month isn’t cutting it––of the best small music venue I’ve ever been to [Infinity Hall]. Thankfully, we still have summer evenings in the Music Shed.

Favorite season? 
I love all the seasons here in Norfolk, but summer is my favorite.

Favorite place(s) in Norfolk? 
It might be the Matterhorn in Great Mountain Forest. Other than that, in my house on a Sunday morning with my beautiful wife, Shana.

––Interview by Mike Cobb