Cooney Iron Workers Move Big Red, Tacoma 1975 Today's Coolphoto 12/27/2023
Ed Isenhart Filming The Move Of Big Red, May 1975
In the mid-seventies the Port Of Tacoma was ready to increase it’s container loading capacity by installing massive cranes along the newly built dock on the Blair Waterway. The first of these we called Big Red. My friends Ed and Wendy Isenhart had recently organized a new film company at their kitchen table named Bodacious Films, and contracted with the Port to document the move by Cooney Erections (sic) of the massive machine from barge to dock. Ed filmed with a hand-wound, spring-driven Bolex 16mm film camera over the several days and nights of the operation. He invited me to shoot stills.
Big Red Installed On The Blair Waterway, May 1975
I felt right at home down on the docks of the new container port, since the crane was to operate at the exact spot that Western Boat had occupied until the area was filled with dredge tailings from widening and deepening the Blair. Western Boat was founded and operated by my grandfather and his boys for more than 70 years from early in the 20th century. Where once there was a waterway into which the Western fishing boats were launched (including the Western Flyer,) there was now an enormous dock.
As world trade exploded in the fifty years since that move, the Port container facility has become the largest on Puget Sound and one of the largest in the world. As trade grew, so the ships got bigger, and the cranes to load them grew apace. The Big Red crane we filmed has long ago been decommissioned, dismantled, and removed.
(Ed and Wendy dropped Boadacious Film for Puget Sound and Pictures, which they operated for a number of years down in Old Town Tacoma, across from the Spar Tavern.)
Cooney Iron Workers Move Big Red, Tacoma 1975 Today's Coolphoto 12/27/2023
©2023 Christopher Petrich
Thanks to you my good friends for fifty years of professional photography and twenty five years of online success with Coolphoto.com! I am at the end of my retail sales career and am closing up shop by the end of this year. I will continue to post new work on Coolphoto, in the form of members-only galleries and Today’s Coolphoto blog posts such as this.
I am sending selected original photographs to the Christopher Petrich Collection at the Northwest Room of the Tacoma Public Library, and I am creating new bound volumes of selected pieces under my Coolphoto imprint. I have four titles in the pipeline to add to the three volumes already published: A Complete Guide To The Lighthouses on Puget Sound Including Admiralty Inlet (ISBN: 978‐0‐9744775-0-8), Dreams (ISBN: 978-0-9744775-1-0) and The Beach At Fox Island (ISBN: 978‐0‐9744775‐2‐7). Each new title will be issued in very small editions of 100 or fewer copies.
For those with questions about my original works, or anything else for that matter, please send me a message. I’d love to hear from you!
NEW PHOTOGRAPHY, BEAUTIFUL AND ORIGINAL
Most Editions are small, 5 and under. I’ve been at this a very long time and I have hundreds of vintage silver collectibles. I’m always taking pictures in Tacoma, of Tacoma people. The best images, on the best paper, in small editions, from a Tacoma photographer, of Tacoma.
Vintage prints are made within a year of the photographs create date. My usual practice is to print within a few days or weeks of exposure. What you see is a scan of the actual print that is for sale. Price does not include shipping or taxes.
Please note that vintage prints are imperfect. They’re old, after all. If you’re worried about it, bring it up. I’ll do my best to answer your questions.
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