Virginia Lee Hunter is considered a reportage photographer. Her photographs are often referred to as a ‘social anthropological exploration of Americana’s underbelly.’ Her current series on the Carnival Midway and the elusive society of Carny life captures the allure of the carnival midway as a pastime, timeless in its connection to our collective memory of the Carnival but goes beyond to explore the gritty transient life of Carnies. 

Her other photographic series on trains and the American Landscape titled, ‘Views  from a Boxcar’ reveal  landscapes only seen from a moving freight train. The series speaks of American expansionism using the freight train as the vehicle from which this country has been developed. Virginia has logged over 10,000 miles hopping freight trains with her camera across the country.

Virginia Lee Hunter was born in 1960 in St Louis Missouri. She received her BFA in Photography from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1983.  In 1986 she moved to Los Angeles California to embark in a career of photography in the music business. She returned to her roots as a documentary photographer a few years later working for the LA Weekly, Associated Press, national and international magazines. During this time, she began her carnival and train series.

A book of her images titled Carny: Americana on the Midway, published by Umbrage Editions, is available in June 2007 as well as a film documentary titled CARNY on which Virginia co-directed and was Director of Photography.  This documentary will be aired on The Sundance Channel, Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, and on TV Ontario, across Canada in fall of 2007 with a theatrical release TBA.

Carnies is classic street photography but using the carnival midway as the backdrop depicting the essence of Americana at county fairs and yet going beyond the cotton candy and bright lights into the world of the Carny.