Pike County native Cecil Rimes has spent his adult life perfecting his photography.
Now the 54-year-old Progress resident has been recognized for his work by receiving a $4,000 visual arts fellowship from the Mississippi Arts Commission.
Rimes will use the fellowship to continue his unique work with the art of pinhole photography.
Rimes is a graduate of William Carey College and has been active in the arts in Mississippi and Louisiana for 30 years.
After 25 years living in New Orleans, he returned to Mississippi two years ago to help a friend work with his tropical plant business. He found himself having trouble living in the battered city after Hurricane Katrina.
He now lives in Progress, helping to care for his parents, Cecil “Tanet” and Lorraine Rimes, who ran a dairy farm for many years. His brother, Aubrey Rimes, lives nearby.
Cecil is busy these days preparing a collection of dozens of black and white photographs of what he calls “bizarre bromeliads,” which will be on display at a show beginning Sept. 13 at the Hattiesburg Cultural Center.
His pinhole camera work is challenging and “a Zen thing,” he said.
Pinhole cameras have no lens or viewfinder. A tiny hole is pierced in thin material, allowing light in and producing an image. Rimes’ wooden pinhole camera’s shutter is manually operated — a piece of wood that slides over the tiny opening. Typical exposures range from 5 seconds to hours and sometimes days.
Rimes went to Carey with the intent to enter the ministry. But his introduction to Lucille Parker at Carey was a life-changing meeting, and he changed his major to art, specifically working as a fine art photographer.
For several years, Rimes was co-owner of Icon Gallery in New Orleans. He prefers to work in black and white, using mostly low-tech cameras. He’s been stockpiling film that’s been discontinued in the digital age.
“I’ve always been interested in primitive plastic cameras,” he said, adding that he became obsessed with pinhole camera work.
He dragged himself into the 21st century, buying a digital camera. But he much prefers the old-fashioned way. His Nikon F4 is a favorite that he won’t get rid of.
His subject matter includes nudes, landscapes, dogs and, more recently, baseball parks.
“I’ve done a lot of self-portraits, and I did a whole series of nudes for a long time,” he said.
His work on ballparks took him from the East to West Coast, photographing many of America’s most iconic ballparks, including Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium and Wrigley Field, which he summed up in one word — “fabulous.”
He loves baseball, and proudly says he’s a Cubs fan.
The Hattiesburg show will be variations on the many varieties of bromeliads from “The Funny Farm,” which is the name of a nursery a friend owns.
His collection of botanical photos, which he produced with his pinhole camera, take on a whimsical look.
His photographs are held in public and private collections across the country and his work has been exhibited in shows throughout the South.
His show in Hattiesburg will run for a month or more.
Rimes’ fellowship is part of $1.2 million in grants awarded this year by the Mississippi Arts Commission. Funding comes from the state Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.
