The typical pinup calendar, as seen in gas stations and car-repair shops, usually features barely clothed women in seductive poses propped against a car or motorcycle. But photographer Sarah Lyon, a motorcycle enthusiast and mechanic herself, is refocusing the image of women in repair shops. Funded in part by a grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, Lyon is photographing female mechanics from around the United States for inclusion in a calendar. "I wanted to give representation to women who really use tools and work in the environment" of a garage or repair shop, she says.
Lyon, 28, an Oldham County native and graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, first had the idea as she traveled cross-country by motorcycle in 2003. While she carried along some tools to repair her ’78 Yamaha XS750, she often used local garages, where she borrowed equipment but did the fix-it work herself. "I met a lot of mechanics on the trip, but I only met men," she says. Since then she has met and photographed female mechanics working on diesel trucks, UPS planes, motorcycles, cars and tractor-trailers.
Lyon, who now teaches photography at Bellarmine University, traveled cross-country again this summer shooting women for the calendar, totaling 15 so far. "The women really get (the project) and agree that it’s important," she says. "I wanted to challenge the stereotype of the typical pinup calendar." She has used a digital SLR as well as a Pentax 67 medium-format film camera for the venture.
Lyon’s approach to portraiture shows her subjects in relationship to objects around them. The women are photographed in the environment of their jobs — with tools, engines and vehicles nearby. Unlike the busty, blond-haired babes in typecast pinup calendars, these women seem to know exactly what to do with the tools they hold, which is well communicated in the photos.
Lyon hopes to publish the calendar for 2007 and will exhibit several of the completed portraits, along with other photographic series, at Zephyr Gallery in January. For more information on Lyon and her various projects visit
www.sarahlyon.com.
— Beth Newberry
