Mr Dennis Allen Waters

Dennis Waters died at home of liver cancer on Tuesday, May 12th. He had only been diagnosed 8 weeks ago prior. Denny was a former professional photographer, current daguerreotype dealer, and longtime resident of Exeter, NH. He was surrounded by his loving family these last weeks, his wife of forty-seven years, Carol, and his two children, Erin and Casey. Dennis was an amazingly wonderful dad, an equally fantastic husband, the best photo dealer, simply the best: amazing, gregarious, loving, and strong. You could find him in a crowded ballroom by his laughter. His family will miss him so much. They are shocked and saddened, as are so many of his near and dear friends. And they are legion. The outreach and love since his death from photo and antique people across the world has been humbling. And then there are family, friends, the woman who works on the Amtrak ACELA and who reached out to Erin on Instagram because Dennis was one of her favorite people "on the rails", the people at the Water St. Bookstore where he bought a new book every week, his friend who womans the front desk at "his" hotel in Paris… Denny was from the village of Orwell in northeastern Ohio. He loved to joke that entering and leaving was written on the same sign to save money. An elaboration, probably, but everyone who knew him soon learned about his sense of humor and to wonder if all of his stories were true. Growing up in such a small town fostered a life-long sense of community in Denny. To him, saying hello with a smile to a neighbor or a stranger walking down the street was as natural as day. He carried this friendliness to Exeter, but also to his travels in large cities like New York, Paris, and London, where a smile is a bit more alien, but, when sincere, goes a long way. Denny's mother was a homemaker and his father owned a construction business. His maternal grandparents owned a dairy farm. He would help out on the farm growing up, riding his bike out to the family homestead, the lure of homemade ice cream at the other end of the trip. Of course, there was hard work too, like baling hay and other chores. He learned about building from his father. Both of his parents fostered a love of collecting early in him; he collected coins, baseball cards, arrowheads, and comic books as a child. Dennis graduated from Grand Valley High School in Orwell, OH in 1970, excelling academically. He lettered in football, basketball, baseball, and track. After high school he attended the University of Missouri to study journalism, but ended being more of a hippie protestor than a student and soon found his way home and then to the east coast. People would later wonder if he really did drop out of Mizzou after just one semester, move to Cambridge, MA with his cousin Chuck, who was just back from Vietnam, protest on the common every weekend or in Washington DC, pretend to be a student at Harvard, become a photographer at the Crimson, and then photograph Muhammad Ali for an article? Well, yes, that's all true and not a tall tale. We have the negatives to prove it. It was his time in Boston that led him to meet Carol, the love of his life, who was then in nursing school. He went back to Ohio for a little while to work with his dad, and they wrote letters back and forth while she worked at Mass General. It was a twist of fate that brought him to Exeter, answering an ad in the Boston Phoenix for a farm hand on a new commune because it was close to Carol in Boston. The commune had broken up by the time he got to New Hampshire, but he found work at Jones Boys Insulation and taught a photography class during summer school at Phillips Exeter Academy. He then found full-time employment as a journalist and photographer with The Exeter Newsletter. He liked to tell people that he was employed as a journalist before his class would have even graduated from college. When he set his sights on a goal, he made it happen. During his first few years in Exeter, Carol visited often and they eventually became engaged. Denny bought a house in 1972. The first renovation was a darkroom. Carol and Denny got married in Acton, MA on May 12, 1973, honeymooning in Paris, Spain, and Morocco. They traveled extensively in the early years of their marriage, making their way through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, England, and Columbia. Trips to Guatemala and Mexico came after they had kids. Dennis eventually left the Newsletter and launched his career as a professional photographer. At first he did a lot of weddings and events, networking as he went, his gregarious nature serving him well. In 1978, he and Carol welcomed their daughter Erin to the world, quickly followed in 1980 by their son Casey. As one might imagine, as children of a photographer, Erin and Casey soon were the subjects of countless photographs. Denny encouraged them from a very early age to help him in the darkroom and even took them on arial flights, including over Hampton Beach as he leaned out of airplanes photographing summer weekend crowds. Like his father before him, he was teaching his kids the tricks of the trade. Also in 1980, serendipity intervened and helped Denny and Carol buy a larger house just across the street with a horse barn that Denny and his dad renovated into a gorgeous photography studio. He started to do product work and portraits and was able to leave weddings behind. He was able to focus on his corporate clients and the architectural, aerial, and construction of power plant work that he became known for. He photographed the first prototypes of the Nike Air Sneakers here in Exeter and New Hampshire's original copy of the Declaration of Independence that the American Independence Museum had just found rolled up in its attic. But, in 1985, he found his true life's passion (other than his family) when a neighbor showed Dennis his small collection of antique photographs including some daguerreotypes (dags). Knowing the history of photography, he had heard of them, but had never seen one. He was, as he often told people, "immediately smitten." It was summer and he and Carol soon went on an antiquing trip to North Conway where he bought his first dag and his second and his third. He was hooked. Although Denny remained a professional photographer until quitting for good in 1999, his real passion from then on was the daguerreotype. As with everything else, he put his all into it, soon meeting other people who were fascinated by these shimmering, mirror-like images that have a sharpness and depth like no other. He quickly became an expert at photographing dags, cataloguing single pieces at a time for collectors like Matthew Isenberg or entire collections like that of the Missouri Historical Society. He worked on the photography for their book, Likeness and Landscape: Thomas M. Easterly and the Art of the Daguerreotype" by Dolores A. Kilgo. Other than showering his kids with love and support in all things, the best gift he gave them was allowing them to take part in his constant exploration of 19th century photography from the get-go. If Carol had to work on a weekend, they would join him shopping at a flea market, or antiquing around New England, or at shows. Not every shop or show welcomed such small children, but Denny always sent them off on their own to find things for them. They knew how to leave deposits, tell people "daddy would be right there and to hold it please," and, later, he trusted just to spend up to a certain amount for things. They also spent countless hours in the barn listening and looking at images with him the revolving stream of collectors, curators, dealers and pickers who came to visit. That Erin and Casey ultimately decided to follow in his footsteps and become photography dealers made him exceedingly proud and happy. As he continued with his collecting, meeting more people like him, he helped to build a community who loved and wanted to study daguerreotypes just as much he did. In 1988, this led to the founding of The Daguerreian Society. Just before he died, the Society awarded him its highest honor, The Fellowship Award, "for the advancement of scholarship in the field of photo history and the willingness to share that knowledge with his contemporaries and future generations of historians, scholars, and collectors." The accompanying letter noted that, "The Waters family has continually been in the forefront of keeping Daguerre's legacy appreciated." In 1992, Dennis and a partner began publishing a fixed price catalogue of dags for sale, "The Daguerreian Forum." Buyers subscribed and received it twice a year. They loved reading Dennis' knowledgeable descriptions that drew on his experience as a photographer and as an expert reader of people. Not only that, his best descriptions became like short stories about the dags. When people bought a dag, they often saved his description with it. Dennis is credited with creating the market for portrait daguerreotypes and, it might be said, in 19th century vernacular photography in general. When he began trading and selling in earnest, many scoffed that he would place such high values on "simple" portraits when for so long outdoor scenes, occupationals, gold miners, and etc were the desired images. It's not that he didn't seek out those images too. Mining scenes paid many bills, but the portraits became his passion and specialty. Around the turn of the century, "The Forum" transitioned online and became www.finedags.com. His partner having left the partnership years before, Dennis focussed on making the new website the best out there for images. As with his photographs of dags, he was always known to make the very finest scans of them. People would write him all the time asking him what equipment he used. In recent years, Denny and Carol were able to travel more and enjoyed trips to the western U.S., Sweden to meet some of her family and visit clients, and to Italy. Most recently, they toured Switzerland and Northern Italy with a dear friend and client. Dennis also enjoyed trips to Europe with Erin for shows in England and Paris. They also went to Brussels recently to visit his cousin's son and on a few trips to Switzerland to see their friend. Casey and Denny's travels were closer to home, but just as frequent with antiquing trips around New England, local shows, and meetings with dealers. Denny, who had shopped Brimfield since the late 1980s, loved roving the fields with his children and all three Waters were saddened when the shows were cancelled this spring, just before Denny's diagnosis. Although Erin has lived in many different places, she met up with Casey and Dennis at various shows in the US, whether in Washington, DC, Allentown, PA, New York City, Emeryville, CA, Rochester, NY, Pittsburgh, PA, Kansas City, MS, or Austin, TX. Four years ago, The Waters Family, together with Mary L. Martin LLC, began the NYC Vintage Photo Fair. A success from the start, it had to unfortunately be postponed this year, as with so many other events in the antique world. Carol had started coming to these shows and Denny was very excited to start bringing her into the business now that she had retired from nursing. Since November, Carol has been selling on her Etsy shop, FineDagsandPhotos. Dennis was obsessed with football, avidly following the Premier League. An ardent supporter of Liverpool, he was distressed when the pandemic postponed the season, although very understanding of the reasoning. He loved watching the World Cup as well and even, during one memorable Civil War show, had Erin stream a United States match on her phone for him. It ended up being quite costly. Denny was President of the Exeter Chamber of Commerce in the early 1980s. Denny is survived by his wife Carol (Erickson) Waters of Exeter, NH and two children, Erin Waters of Lancaster, PA and Casey Waters of Exeter, NH. His mother, Elizabeth (Hopes) Waters died just last month and his father Allen Waters many years ago. He is also survived by many, many loving aunts, uncles, and cousins, nieces, and nephews. As per his wishes, there won't be a formal funeral, but when it is safe to travel, we will have a celebration of life party here in Exeter so more about that later. The family would like to thank The Rockingham VNA and Hospice, especially his lead nurse and fellow lover of drambuie, Silas, who helped greatly during Dennis' last weeks and hours. Visit Tributes.com for more extensive Obit/Reflections Donations in his name may be made here: Hospice Memorial Donation https://www.exeterhospital.com/Rockingham-VNA-Hospice/RVNA-Hospice-Events Donations may also be made in Dennis' name to The Daguerreian Society: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=TK2NRVWG6PEYG&source=url