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A "Smithfield institution" was Dot Hooks: photographer, painter, and portrait artist Warren Grimes put together this story for posting on the Facebook page entitled "You know you're from Smithfield, NC if ..." --- with assistance from Buddy Hooks, a Dot Hooks nephew who grew up in Smithfield and now resides in Tarboro, and Sue Hooks, a niece who still resides in Smithfield: Dorothy
(Dot) Hood Hooks was born February 27,
1913, the fifth child of Dr. Ethelred
(Thel) and Eva Hood Hooks. When Dot was 10
years old, she contracted scarlet fever.
Her mother bought her some paints to keep
her occupied and still during the critical
recuperative period. She fell in love with
painting and did several sketches of
extended family members during her teenage
years.
Dot
was always an active person and played on
the girls’ basketball team while in high
school. She graduated from Smithfield High
School in 1930 and went on to attend
Greensboro College. Soon, she pursued her
dream of becoming an artist, attending
Parson’s School of Fine & Applied Arts
in New York City, interrupted after her
first year when her father died in 1935
and she had to return home to Smithfield.
 Dot soon
realized that she couldn’t make a living
as an artist and decided to pursue
photography. She went back to NYC to
attend the New York Institute of
Photography. In 1939 she purchased a
second-floor photography studio from
Blanche Davis on Third Street, changing
the name to Hooks Studio, and began her
39-year career as a photographer. Her
older sister, Arah, gave up her career as
a school teacher to join Dot as a colorist
and receptionist at the studio.Dot remained at the Third Street location until June 1951 when she bought the house at 204 South Second Street from her mother and two aunts. The house had belonged to her grandparents, T. R. and Lucy Woodall Hood, and inherited by their their daughters Eva, Eula, and Lucy. The
house was on a corner lot and had a
driveway on the left side. Starting at the
driveway, Dot built her studio to the left
of the house. Some years later, she
enclosed part of the front porch, adding a
display area for her portraits and art
work.
Early
in her career, Dot was often called upon
to photograph deceased citizens as they
lay in their coffins. Being short in
statue, this sometimes presented a problem
for Dot. She would often grab a chair to
stand on so she would be high enough to
take the photo.
She was standing on such a chair with her camera poised over the coffin when the distraught sister of the deceased came rushing into the room with screams and wails. As she came toward the coffin, she bumped the chair Dot was standing on, causing Dot to topple into the coffin with the deceased. Dot says it took four men to get her out. She then put the chair back in place, stood on it, and continued with the photo session. Another
time, Dot had a gentleman who wasn’t happy
with his photo. He claimed he didn’t have
all those wrinkles shown in the photo and
took pride in still having a smooth face
at 60. Dot told him she didn’t put the
wrinkles in the photo but she would be
glad to take them out.
Dot
was one of the first women among the
professional photographers in the state.
She joined the Professional Photographers
of North Carolina, later serving as its
first woman president in 1962. Dot was the
first woman photographer in North Carolina
Dot to earn her Master of Photography from
the Professional Photographers of America.
She was selected as one of 63 nominees for
Distinguished Women of North Carolina by
the N.C. Council on the Status of Women
during Jim Martin’s term as Governor.
During
the World War II years, Dot photographed
many young men in uniform. Many were
killed in the war and their portraits
provided loved ones something to remember
them by.
Dot
found ways throughout her career to
upgrade with new ideas and new equipment
for her studio. Whenever Dot bought new
camera or lighting equipment, she would
call her nephews, nieces, or other young
family relatives to come over for some
test photos to help her get the feel for
the new equipment.
"She called my two young daughters one day and did a photo shoot with some new lighting equipment she had purchased," cousin Warren Grimes recalled. "Following her retirement from her photography career, she painted an oil portrait from one of those photos for her studio showroom. She left that portrait to us in her will and we will treasure it forever." Dot
never lost her love of painting. She and
Arah would close the studio for two weeks
in the summer to travel to either the N.C.
coast or the mountains to paint landscape
scenes. I’m the proud owner of two of
Dot’s mountain landscapes, one which is
displayed in a frame she made from old
tobacco-barn wood.
By
the time Dot decided to retire from
photography in 1978, she had received
numerous photography awards and accolades
from far and wide and had photographed
over four generations of Johnstonians ---
including business portraits, babies, and
brides.
Dot excelled in bridal portraits uniquely staged in her studio, some full-length and some closeups. She had a special way of getting that twinkle in the bride’s eyes. Most of her brides commissioned her to shoot on location during the ceremony and reception, taking candid shots to preserve the moments of that special day, presented in a wedding album. A
nephew, Buddy Hooks, recalled that during
his early school years, Dot called him and
his brother Bobby to come to the studio
after school to model for a new portrait
idea she had seen at a recent
photographers’ convention. "I was not
happy learning that it was the portrait of
my brother that won the first-place ribbon
in a competition that year," said Buddy.
"We modeled for Dot many times and one particular portrait she painted of me was full-length and almost life-size and stood prominently in her showroom. There was method in creating this size portrait with hopes of up-selling her patrons to commission a larger portrait." Buddy
worked in the studio’s dark room after
school, mainly mixing and changing the
chemicals and developing her negatives
from studio shoots. She taught him her
technique for printing proofs. "I spent a
lot of time in the dark(room)," he said.
Buddy learned to make frames and negative
retouching, a skill he put to use when he
went off to college, working part-time for
a photography studio in Wilson.
In
Dot’s so-called retirement, she began a
second career as an artist and painter
(her first love as a child). As in
photography, her work received numerous
awards. Dot’s paintings and oil portraits
were commissioned by patrons throughout
the Southeast. Many prominently hang at
Campbell University, the Johnston County
Courthouse, Johnston Health, and in many
Johnston County homes.
She later maintained a small art studio in a South Smithfield home bought after she sold her home and Hooks Studio on Second Street. She continued to paint landscapes from photographs taken much earlier during her travels with sister Arah. Dot began offering painting classes to aspiring local artists two days a week at her house. The classes continued until shortly before she died. Dot
died in October 2003. Her work ---
photography and paintings --- will live
for generations yet to come.
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