Carny: Americana on the Midway »

Virginia Lee Hunter returned to documentary and portraiture photography in 1990. She began photographing carnies and the carnival midway in 1995, traveling across the states with different carnivals. With award-winning BBC filmmaker Alison Murray, Hunter has created a documentary film, also called Carny, scheduled to air in 2007. She works for Greenpeace, photographing environmental issues worldwide.

Explores the relentless, wacky, eerie energy of old-time American summers and Carnivals through vivacious imagery.

The Washington Post - Rachel Hartigan Shea

In the photographs in Carny—which are accompanied by suitably surreal song lyrics from Tom Waits—she captures the bright lights of the tilt-a-whirl and the seedy thrill of games with dubious odds and cheap prizes.