Zachary S. Malham’s day job is running The Egg & I restaurant in Highlands Ranch, but his passion for photography and interest in iconic Western pop culture images earned Malham a one-man show at a prestigious Cherry Creek North venue. Upon seeing Malham’s photo of a drive- in theater in Walsenburg, Photographers’ Gallery owner Jim Sidinger, who calls Malham’s work a “moving narrative of the end of an era,” offered to show Malham’s portfolio. “Drive-in Theaters” opens Sept. 2, with a reception Sept. 5, at 2426 E. Third Ave. Claire Martin, The Denver Post
Q: What prompted your interest in photographing abandoned drive-in theaters?
A: In 1983, my wife and I were on a trip in Green River, Utah, and saw the Dunham drive-in theater, closed because not much was going on there by then. That was the first one I shot. Three years later, we were in the same area, and we decided to go through Green River so I could shoot it again — and it was gone! They’d put up a food stand. I told my wife, “If they’re tearing these down in Green River, then what’s happening to the other drive-ins across the West?”
Q: So you started photographing them before they got torn down?
A: I was on a mission. Every time we went to a town, we’d look for the screen tower, and I’d photograph every drive-in we found, from Montana to Texas, and all the states in between. I built a huge portfolio of over 40 drive-ins.
Q: All in black-and-white?
A: Black-and-white has that forlorn feeling that fits with my series’ themes. My main focus, as a black-and- white fine arts photographer, is honoring and commemorating the vanishing Western Americana that was once really great — old cafes and diners, old gas-station signs, the icons from the 1940s and ’50s.
Q: And you shoot film, not digital?
A: I use a 35-millimeter camera. Film only.
Q: Why did you want to mount this exhibit at this particular time?
A: I learned that 2008 is the 75th anniversary of the drive-in theater — the diamond anniversary of a vanishing icon. I had a portfolio of images, so in January, I started aggressively going after a gallery. I was determined to show, even if I had to lease a gallery on my own.
Q: How did Jim Sidinger find out about your work?
A: One of my photographs was selected to hang in a photo exhibition last March at the Lone Tree golf club. Jim was really taken by it. He went through my portfolio, and halfway through it, he said, “We have a show here!”
Q: What’s your favorite drive-in image?
A: There’s one from Buffalo, Wyo., that’s so cool because there are hitching posts at the concession stand and a corral in front of the screen. You rode your horse to the drive-in; that’s how rural Buffalo, Wyo., was. Another one is the Laramie Skyline. An artist painted a perfectly-proportioned cowboy on a screen that had been abandoned for years. But that one was torn down in the late ’90s — a real travesty, not only losing a drive-in but a work of art.
