the manteo project

The Manteo Project

Spring break is supposed to be a time to get

away from the rigors of the classroom.

But for 12 photojournalists on “vacation,” the

Outer Banks of North Carolina

became a classroom for a week.

A SPRING BREAK ENDEAVOR • MARCH 14-19, 2003 • MANTEO, N.C.

2 Pottery • 3 Barber • 4 Hand Gliding • 5 N.C. Aquarium • 6 Fishing • 7 Features • 8-9 Fishing

10 Features • 11 Outer Banks • 12 Lighthouses • 13 Features • 14-15 Photographers • 16 Sponsor

PHOTOS BY EVAN SEMON

CITADEL • On a foggy, rainy day typical of the spring break trip to the Outer Banks, the Cape Hatteras light-house shows through the fog.

2 • THE MANTEO PROJECT

TurningBurning&

DRY • Candle holders that have dried line the back of the Morrill’s truck to be taken to the kiln to be fired. Candle holders are Wanchese Potteries best-seller. “They’re cheap and easy to make,” Morrill said. “We sell a lot of them and they don’t take up much shelf space.”

HERE KITTY • King-Potts, Wan-chese Pottery’s pet cat, sits on the counter and watches as people enter and leave the store. Morrill said Potts is the king of the store. “He greats everybody that comes in here,” Morrill said.  

SMILE • Bonnie Morrill, owner of Wanchese Pottery, laughs with a customer while making a pot in her studio. Morrill said she put her potter’s wheel in front of the window so the light on her work is better and the customers can get a better look at what she’s doing. Mor-rill never did any pottery in high school or college and was a third grade teacher. “I took a night pottery class about 21 years ago and have been hooked ever since.”

PHONE • Evidence that you’re in a pottery store is all around visitors to the tiny shop,  including on the phone, which is covered with dried clay. Pottery is called “Turning and Burn-ing” in the South and is called “Throw and Fire” in the north. The kiln reaches tempera-tures as high as 2,300 degrees.

PHOTOS BY MATT STAMEY

SPIN • Bonnie Morrill spins a clay bowl on her potters wheel at her shop on the water front in Manteo, N.C. Morrill and her husband Bob, have been doing  pottery for 21 years and have been in Manteo since 1991. The clay they use for their art is from Asheville and is used for dinner wear, meaning it can be used in the microwave, oven and dishwasher.

“I took a night pottery class about 21 years ago and have been hooked ever since.” • Bonnie Morrill

THE MANTEO PROJECT • 3

Barber ShopSmall-town barber provides just the right cut

TOP PHOTO

BARBER WHEELS • C.L. Reynolds has retired his bi-cycle, now riding a scooter to work when the weather 

is nice. His bicycle in the alley was always a sign 

that the shop was open, and when he bought the 

scooter his regulars didn’t know he was open. Now 

he keeps the bicycle in the shop and sets it outside during business hours.

CHEAP TREAT • A rare one-cent gum ball 

machine sits in Reynold’s Barber Shop. After Reyn-

olds finished Lewis’ haircut he gave him a few pennies 

and told him to get a few pieces to take home to 

his sister. “That gum ball machine is probably the 

only thing you can spend a penny on anymore,” 

Reynolds said.

PHOTOS BY JEANEL DRAKE

FLAT TOP •  Nine-year-old Ryan Lewis gets his usual haircut from C.L. Reynolds at Reynolds Barber Shop in downtown Manteo, N.C. Reynolds has been barbering since 1958 and is celebrating 25 years at 303 Old Tom St. “Every time you’re doing a service where you benefit somebody you feel kind of good,” Reynolds said.

WAITING GAME • With an inconsistent sched-ule based on walk-ins, Reynolds spends a good portion of his day waiting on customers. He fills the time by reading his Bible. Reynolds is an interim Southern Baptist minister.

MORNING SHAVE • Man-teo resident David Parker gets a haircut and shave for $9 at Reynolds Barber Shop. When Reynolds started barbering, a haircut cost 75 cents. “People used to have more time to sit and talk, but now they’ve become too busy,” Reyn-olds said.


Over the edgeHang gliders use largest East Coast sand dune to learn new craft

PHOTOS BY MATT STAMEY

OFF WE GO • Allison Ellis, a beginner, hang glides for the first time at Jockey’s Ridge while instructor Andy Torrington gives advice. The dunes at Jockey’s Ridge provide, according to Kitty Hawk Kites’ Hang Gliding Training Center, the perfect platform for learning to hang glide – enough height with a soft landing.

PHOTO BY JEANEL DRAKE

TAKE OFF • Andy Torrington helps Allison Ellis take off. Kitty Hawk Kites’ 

Hang Gliding Trading Center advertises itself as the largest hang gliding school 

in the world, teaching students since 1974. 


FLY HIGH • Jennifer Purtee, an ad-vanced beginner from Italy, learns 

more hang gliding skills. Conditions on the ridge allow gliders to travel more 

than 100 yards at 5 to 15 feet above the sand.


TAKE OFF • Before they can go off cliffs, hang gliders have to get certified beyond the basic level. Instructors in Manteo teach beginning and advanced classes.

PHOTO BY MATT STAMEY

PULL UP • Climbing back up the hill, backwards, with the glider, as Jennifer Purtee shows, can be tough.


Under the seaNorth Carolina Aquarium provides look at life beneath the waves


BUBBLES? • As part of daily maintenance on the 285,000-gallon aquarium, Beth Southern, special activities coordinator, cleans the glass wall while demonstrating diving techniques for visitors.

PHOTO BY BRADLEY WILSON

CHECK UP • John Roesgen, an aquarist with the North Carolina aquarium, checks on the health of the terrapins.

PHOTO BY MATT ELLIOTT

WHAT A VIEW • Visitors to the aquarium admire a replica of the U.S. Monitor as well as sharks and other fish in the facility’s largest attraction. The North Carolina Aquarium on Roa-noke Island also features interac-tive exhibits and research facilities.

PHOTO BY EVAN SEMON

IN SCHOOL • Pat Murphy, the aquar-ium’s dive safety officer, explores the indoor underwater environment. Aquarium staff regularly work with in-jured loggerhead sea turtles, dolphins and whales as well as fish.

PHOTO BY NICOLE DONNERT PHOTO BY MATT STAMEY

PHOTO BY KELLY GLASSCOCKPHOTO BY MATT STAMEY


Out tO SeaDay charter gives visitors chance to experience deep sea

PHOTOS BY MATT ELLIOTT

REEL’EM IN • Leisa Lowrey, of Jasper, Ind., reels in her third fish of the evening. “This is great,” she said. “John’s (her husband) a pilot and had the weekend off, so we decided to take the kids fishing.”

ALL IN THE FAMILY • Johnathan Lowrey takes a pho-to of his son Bob as Bob reels in his first striper during their fishing trip on the Sea Hunter 2. The family members caught their limit of 16 fish. Thomas, 8 years old, caught the biggest fish – more than 19” long.

SLICE • Mate Jeff Floyd, of Nagshead, finishes cleaning the last of the 16 fish caught by the Lowrey family. “I’ve been doing this for a little over a year now, and I love it. Fishing is just something that gets in your blood,” Floyd said. 

CATCH • Striped Bass, Rockfish, are common along the Outer Banks. Catches up to more than 30 pounds are common.


PHOTO BY CARL HUDSON

FOR YOU • John Gonzalez video tapes the parade on his float at Kill Devil Hills, NC on St. Patrick’s Day while throwing out a lei to the crowd. Mike Kelly owner of Kelly’s Restaurant, started the parade in 1990. Now, some 10,000 people line Beach Road to see the parade. Afterwards, Kelly serves free hot dogs and soft drinks. “The parade has become one of the highlights of late winter and early spring,” said Nags Head Mayor Bob Mueller in a story in the Outer Banks Sentinel by Bill Freehling.

PHOTO BY ROB BRADLEY

PATRIOTS • An American flag flies in downtown Manteo, an area full of small stores open largely for the tourists.

PHOTO BY KELLY GLASSCOCK

SHINY • Richard Andrews cleans the side of a boat in Wanchese during the off-season. Andrews is the first mate of the one-year-old charter boat.

PHOTO BY EVAN SEMON

OVERHAND • Evan Thomas, 6, casts his line over the docks of Pirate’s Cove on the east side of Manteo, a town that ap-peals to commercial and casual fishers.


HEADS UP • The Wright Brothers Memorial marks the spot where Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first powered airplane flight on Dec. 17, 1903.


NO PARKING • A parking lot for a restaurant in Nags Head flooded due to recent rains.


OCEAN VIEW • Shells and rocks along the beach near Jockey’s Ridge.


CLEAN FEET • Matt Elliott stands on a pillar on the Atlantic Ocean beach.

FEA

TUR

ES


The Perfect Catch

Fresh from your local ocean to the supermarket, day’s catch nets thousands


IN LINE • Fish are taken off the conveyor belt and sorted by workers, then packed with ice to keep them fresh. The workers many times stay until 3 a.m. unloading boats that come in with their day’s catch.


READY TO GO • Fish are thrown in a cardboard box labeled fresh fish and packed with ice. They are kept in a freezer until they are ready to be shipped.


CLEAN UP • While out at sea, the 

crews nets were tangled in the ocean current 

forcing them to unwind the net by hand.  The job will 

take three full days of work, witch 

means three days of no income for 

the crew.



CATCH • After a boat came in to the dock, Marshal Sand-erlin throws the day’s catch onto a conveyor belt for the fish to be packed in ice.


FRESH CATCH • Fish caught earlier in the day ride down a conveyor belt to be back in ice and shipped as fresh seafood. A boat this usually catches around 10,000 pounds but only caught 1,000 pounds today.

PHOTO BY EVAN SEMON

MOONLIGHT • Marshal Sanderlin waits to upload a shipment of blue fish to be iced and shipped out for sale.


FEATURES


GOOD DOGGIE • Steve Eakin plays with his daughter, Elizabeth, and nephew, Taylor Cowan, and dog, Kelly, at Valley Mount sand dunes during a short vacation.


TOP OF THE HILL • The Wright Brothers Memorial 

is large tourist attraction the monument represents 

the starting point of the first ever flight. Dec. 17, 2003 

marks the 100th anniver-sary of man’s first flight.


TANGLED WEB • Scott works on his Day Sailor on the Waterfront in Manteo. He works and lives on his 

girlfreind’s  31 Cal sailboat. His girlfriend is in the 

bahammas, and he watches over her boat. This is his third winter living on the 

boat.

BY EVAN SEMON

PLAY BALL • Timmy Colson, 8, stands below a basketball goal on the cracked concrete court in front of his house that doubles as a parking lot for the apartments behind the house.


HIGH JUMP • Conner sadler, 10, plays trampoline basketball in his backyard with Isaac Moore, 10.  The two of them had played in basketball tournoment earlier in the day and finished the day playing on the trampoline. “It’s the only way they can dunk” Greg Sadler, dad, said.


The Outer BanksA look at the environment of the islands off North Carolina’s coast

PHOTOS BY BLAKE PEMBERTON

INTO THE WOODS • Nags Head Woods, a 1,400-acre preserve, is home to more than 200 species of plants and 50 species of birds.

PHOTO BY AARON JENNINGS

SUNSHINE • Settlements back as far as the mid-1500s took advantage of the mild climate year-around. About 6 million people visit the Outer Banks each year.

PHOTO BY BLAKE PEMBERTON

FLYWAY • Nags Head Woods is on the fall 

flyway for a variety of birds including these geese flying near the 

Bodie Island Light-house. Each spring 

and summer, pelicans, herons, egrets, ibises, 

terns, skimmers and gulls gather on small 

islands and barrier beaches along North 

Carolina’s coast to nest and raise their young. 


SUNRISE, SUNSET • In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh traveled to Roanoke Island and took possession of the land for England. They met native Algonquians and eventually returned to England, undoubtedly reporting on the potential for settlements.


GRANDIOSE • Nurtured in isolated patches of preserve and housing subdivisions, some tall trees do grow on the island. Nags Head Woods is sheltered from the ocean by a ridge of ancient dunes, protecting trees from the damaging winds that come off the ocean.


GRASS • The sandy soils throughout the estuarine waters and marshes support little vegetation naturally. However, tall grasses are common along the sandy dunes that line the beach.


Sentinels of the Coast

Four lighthouses stand guard over

the state’s coastPHOTO BY CARL HUDSON

IN THE RAIN • Cape Hatteras was the site of the first lighthouse along North Carolina’s treach-erous coast, built in 1802. The current lighthouse 

on Cape Hatteras was built in 1870.


SMILE • Matt Elliott photographs the Bodie Island lighthouse.


LOOK OUT • At 208 feet, Cape Hatteras is the tallest lighthouse 

in the nation. It was moved 2,900 feet 

inland in 1999 as part of a $12 million project 

to preserve the light-house.


FIERCE CLOUDS • The Bodie Island 

lighthouse was built in 1872 to shine over the 

Oregon Inlet which has, over time, migrated 

nearly two miles away.


LOOK UP • Each lighthouse is painted differently to make them recognizable in daylight. Their lights rotate at a different rate so ships would know where they were if they couldn’t see land.


FEATURES


HEADS UP • Visiting the Outer Banks, this bird watcher from Ohio stopped near the Bodie Island lighthouse after attending a wedding in Virginia.

PHOTO BY AARON JENNINGS

TARGET • Old family grave sites are common in Nags Head Woods. Usually nobodycares about them except for that family.  Virgal Stapp died in 1942,possibly during battle in World War II. He was 21. Someone defaced this grave, using this man’s picture on the headstone for target practice.   


BIKE RACK • During the off season, empty spots for boats can be seen at the water  front of Manteo. Two bikes lean against a post used to tie boats to the doc.


SMILES • The St. Patrick’s Day parade, island officials claim, is the larget parade in North Carolina. Almost anyone with a car or mo-torized vehicle joins in with crazy hats, candy and lots of green.


WASH UP • After working in the gardens, Zachary and his mother wash the mud off their hands with the garden hose.


PHOTO BY FUNNY LADY

GROUP SHOT • Kelly Glasscock, Blake Pemberton, Rob Bradley, Bradley Wilson, Nicole Donnert, Matt Stamey, Jeanel Drake, Evan Semon, Matt Elliott, Carl Hudson, Brad Smith; not pictured Aaron Jennings


HAIRY TOES • On one of the rare almost sunny moments, Kelly Glasscock photographs Matt Elliott’s feet oceanside.

SELF PORTRAIT BY ROB BRADLEY

MORE RAIN • Rob Bradley looks outside the van on 45-minute journey to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Fellow N.C. State photographer Carl Hudson said, “My favorite 

moments on this trip was when all gathered together at the end of the night and would grab a couple of beers and just 

sit around and watch what everyone had to show. “


ATTACK • Evan Semon poses inside a shark at the 

aquarium.


Who we areROB BRADLEY • a freshman at N.C. State University and assistant photo editor of the Technician

NICOLE DONNERT • a sophomore at Kan-sas State University and photo editor of the Collegian; [email protected]

JEANEL DRAKE • a junior at Kansas State University; [email protected]

MATT ELLIOTT • A junior at Kansas State Uni-versity. [email protected]

KELLY GLASSCOCK • A senior at Kansas State University and digital photo editor of the Royal Purple yearbook. [email protected]

CARL HUDSON • a junior at N.C. State University and photo editor for the 2004 Agromeck yearbook; [email protected]

AARON JENNINGS • A freshman at N.C. State University and graduate of Manteo High School. [email protected]

BLAKE PEMBERTON • A senior at Enloe High School in Raleigh. [email protected]

EVAN SEMON • A junior at Kansas State Uni-versity. [email protected]

BRAD SMITH • a free-lance photographer in Washington, D.C. and graduate of the Uni-versity of North Carolina/Chapel Hill; [email protected]

MATT STAMEY • a graduating senior at Kan-sas State University and photo editor of the Royal Purple yearbook; [email protected]

BRADLEY WILSON • coordinator of student media at N.C. State University and organizer of this little adventure; [email protected]

THANKS TOSUZANNE GODLEY of Roanoke Island Festival Park for helping us find a great place to stay

DARYL LAW of the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island for showing us around the aquarium

ROBIN SAWYER of Manteo High School for letting us use the computers and scanners at the high school – at any hour

NABIL SHAHEEN of Kansas State University for copy editing

TECHNICAL INFORMATIONMost of the pictures contained in The Manteo Project were shot on high-end digital cameras such as the Nikon D1. Some were shot on film and scanned using Nikon film scanners. 

The publication was designed in Adobe InDesign 2.02. Photos were edited using Adobe Photoshop 7.0. The publication, designed by Bradley Wilson and the photog-raphers on the expedition, was printed by J&S Printing using an 85-line screen. Fonts used include Shinn Light, Shinn Medium, Shinn Extrabold, and California. Accent fonts include Texas Hero, Onyx, Americana, Oregon Wet, Goudy Handtooled, Harting and Birch.

 

Having a little funFrom a first trip to the beach to eating sushi,

spring break is all about having fun


KICKER • Brad Smith, a free-lance photogra-

pher, came to the coast to help critique photos.


KICKER • Jeanel Drake helps wrap Nicole Don-

nert for a visit to the beach at Cape Hatteras. 

This was Nicole’s first visit to the ocean.


UGH • Nicole Donnert pets the Horseshoe Crabs at the aquarium.

PHOTO BY MJATT STAMEY

ALL SMILES • The crew from Kansas at the beach. Despite the rain and chilly weather, the folks from Kansas visited the ocean every day.


SPLISH SPLASH • Matt Elliott tries to avoid getting his digital camera wet while taking pictures of the ocean.


DESERT POWER • Matt Stamey has a little fun look-ing for water at Jockey’s Ridge.


FEATURES


THROUGH THE AIR • Jennifer Purpee flies through the air on a hang glider of the largest sand dune in North Carolina.


INTO THE MIST • Stairways down to the beach lead from the dozens of homes behind the sand dunes.

the manteo project

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manteo projectspring

night pottery class

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outer banks of north

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