It was a pleasant afternoon at The Art Hive talking with Prescott photographer Pat Warwick. To risk a cliché, Pat is one of the most ‘focused’ photographers I’ve ever met. He knows his subjects, his equipment and techniques, he knows what he wants to photograph, and he knows how to get the shot. He’s not easily distracted — yes, he’s truly focused.
Photographically speaking, things came into focus for Pat as a college student at Valley City State College in North Dakota in the early 1980s. During his second year, while working on a degree in industrial technology, he took a photography class, and, like so many of us, had that profound-epiphany moment when he saw that first image magically appear on the photographic paper in the developer. The photography bug had bitten hard, and he took every photography course he could during his remaining time at college.
His early photography experience gave him the direction and determination to continue with a photography career as the ultimate goal. After obtaining his degree he continued to study photography at the Hawkeye Institute of Technology in Waterloo, Iowa, ultimately obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in photography in 1983. (Established in 1966 as the only technical school in the region, the Hawkeye Institute was a highly regarded photography program that produced many skilled working professionals. It became Hawkeye Community College in 1993.) With access to both color and black-and-white darkrooms, studios and a wide variety of cameras, Pat immersed himself in every aspect of the photographic process. Like so many photography schools of the era, it trained many, many portrait and wedding photographers and that’s exactly what Pat ended up shooting post-college.
After college Pat described himself as a fish out of water, working as a wedding photographer for a big studio in Dallas, Texas. He shot more weddings that he can remember, and is happily not shooting weddings today. Imagine two big-haired Texas mothers-in-law and a bridezilla at a 200-guest Saturday afternoon wedding! But wedding photography was a natural step for someone from a program affiliated with the Professional Photographers of America, an organization of portrait and wedding photographers, and it was PPA connections that led to that first full-time photography job.
Our conversation digressed and looped back to our shared nostalgia for the photography-school critique. Critique day was both nerve-wracking and exciting. You put your work up for the class and professor to see and discuss, and you hope they like your pictures. Sometimes you may get a brutal critique, other times the commentary is uplifting and flattering, but this is how you learn. We both share the frustration of never, ever getting a valid critique of our work post-school. Once you’re no longer the learner and turn pro, no one ever discusses your photographic vision — it’s all commerce, competition, getting paid and moving on to the next assignment.
After three years of Texas wedding photography Pat escaped from both Texas and wedding photography. The lure of nature led Pat to landscape photography, which is what he’s most known for today.
The deadlines and pressures of wedding photography served Pat well, but underlying it all was stalwart family support. His father was a longtime practitioner of Polaroid photography, and Pat has fond memories of anxious anticipation, peeling that print away from the negative, revealing an instant photo. Although Pat’s father passed away when he was in college, he credits his dad as an inspiration.
Other inspirational photographers were Ansel Adams and Edward Weston of the classic F-64 group, black and white photographers, and Jerry Uelsmann, inventor of the composite print and another master B&W printer. Others are landscape photographer and photojournalist Jack Dykinga and Alaskan landscape painter Norman Lowell, whom Pat credits for influencing his perception of light. Pat also credits local photographer Ross Hilmoe for helping him master the 4x5 view camera. Pat acquired his first large-format digital printer from another local photographer, Jackie Staskon, who passed away in 2004. The acquisition of that printer resulted in Pat’s entry into large-scale prints on paper.
Burned out from the wedding-photography experience, his sister and brother-in-law invited him to visit them in Florida. What would he do in Florida? One thing was building a 42-foot boat, which gave him an opportunity to use the welding skills that came with his industrial-tech degree. Later his brother invited him to Prescott, and for about six years Pat alternated between boat-building in Florida and residing in Prescott. In 1993 he visited Alaska and ended up staying for six more years! During that time he worked in an Anchorage photo lab, then ultimately opened a photography studio with a friend. Pat licensed photos, including some used for national advertising, through the Alaska Stock Photo Agency up through about the year 2000, when the stock-photo business became unviable for photographers.
Pat is also an expert infrared photographer. Like some of us, he began experimenting with infrared photography during the film days, and dealing with all the specialized technical hassles that come with it. It was a lot of fun discussing the old days and old ways of infrared photography, because Pat and I experienced all the same technical hurdles, and we managed to overcome most of them. With the digital revolution he transitioned to digital infrared, a simpler and more versatile process. Pat’s contemporary infrared photography, especially of landscapes, is magical, ethereal and simply outstanding.
As an Art Hive studio artist Pat participates in the 4th Friday Art Walks and does well selling from his studio. From time to time he’s exhibited at The Raven and other local venues. But Prescott is a small market, so Pat hopes to get into the Scottsdale galleries and beyond in the not-too-distant future.
No mere hobbyist, Pat Warwick is an experienced, educated, professional photographer, and for forty-plus years he’s has been following his own vision and producing striking imagery of the American landscape with single-minded determination and enthusiasm. He’s successfully weathered the transition from film to digital, embraced technology and has progressed into an ever more exciting future-world of image-making. He’s no elitist art snob, but a friendly, approachable guy ready to share his knowledge or sell you a print. From large to small, panoramic or square, canvas or paper, Pat has photographic art ready to brighten and enhance your home or office.
You can see Pat Warwick’s work at The Art Hive, 205 N. Cortez St.
