Cambodian Girl Sitting On A TV, Vintage Photo Of The Day, June 8

When we were a young family we would go to church meetings and gather with our friends on weekends.  Sometimes we went to festivals for Faith and Life. 

During one of those festivals in the early eighties, there was a traditional dance on the big festival night given by a family from Cambodia. The girl below danced with four others.

Faith and Life brought us together with the handicapped, some severely affected. We were all very glad to be with them for they were all dear friends. The handicapped, and I know we all are, but the severely handicapped cannot hide who they are. They become our most honest people with little to hide and little reason to do so. It means that I found myself closer to truth, unsettling, honest, and joyful.

It was hard for Cambodians back then.  The war there was brutal and many fled. But that festival night was charming, and so, who could resist the utter charm of it, the young girl in traditional dress, unsure a bit and sitting on a television?

Vintage print, $625

Cambodian Girl On A TV 1980

I created large format silver photographs of my home town for 20 years from 1990 through 2010. These are rich, beautifully crafted silver images processed for permanence. Vintage prints are made within a year of the photograph create date. My usual practice was to print within a few days or weeks of exposure. There are at most six prints per image; most images have three or fewer prints.

Ella At The Arena, Vintage Photo Of The Day, June 6

The great Ella Fitzgerald performed in Seattle in the mid-seventies. I made this image to accompany a review for a local throwaway. I didn't keep a tearsheet and I can't remember the name of the paper.

That’s Tommy Flanagan upstage playing the piano.

In 1956 during the Newport summer jazz festival Mr. Flanagan first accompanied Ella Fitzgerald, a job that would keep him occupied for a good deal of the next 20 years; he also acted as her musical director.

Vintage print, $625

Ella Fitzgerald, Seattle, 1976 (Vintage Silver)
Print 18217
Original Date 1976
Print Date 1976
Size 10x8
Format Vintage Silver
Edition 1
Stamp On Back
Price $625

I created large format silver photographs of my home town for 20 years from 1990 through 2010. These are rich, beautifully crafted silver images processed for permanence. Vintage prints are made within a year of the photograph create date. My usual practice was to print within a few days or weeks of exposure. There are at most six prints per image; most images have three or fewer prints.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Vintage Photo Of The Day, June 7

This bridge was the sole span across the Tacoma Narrows but also the second of its kind after the first was blown apart by the wind in the early 1940's. In 2007 a new suspension bridge arose next to it, but for over fifty years this steel bridge held the position by itself.

I loved seeing it from below because it showed how delicate the structure appeared to be while belying its great strength.

This is one of my earliest images in large format.  I had studied the principles of Ansel Adams, wishing to create a body of work that echoed Adams' majestic style. I would continue to emulate this style for another 20 years.

Vintage print, $625

Tacoma Narrows Bridge from Beneath on the Gig Harbor side, early nineties

I created large format silver photographs of my home town for 20 years from 1990 through 2010. These are rich, beautifully crafted silver images processed for permanence. Vintage prints are made within a year of the photograph create date. My usual practice was to print within a few days or weeks of exposure. There are at most six prints per image; most images have three or fewer prints.

Vintage Photo Of The Day, June 5

The water beneath the Murray Morgan Bridge. 

Vintage print, $625

From The Bridge, Boats, pilings, and the sparkle on the water.

I created large format silver photographs of my home town for 20 years from 1990 through 2010. These are rich, beautifully crafted silver images processed for permanence. Vintage prints are made within a year of the photograph create date. My usual practice was to print within a few days or weeks of exposure. There are at most six prints per image; most images have three or fewer prints.

Vintage Photo Of The Day, June 4

Some like to row and this day was perfect for it.  The wind was calm and the water smooth on Tacoma's Commencement Bay. Two large bulk cargo ships lay at anchor some distance away with fog just lifting in the morning sun. You can just make out the name of the nearest ship, "Wren."

Vintage print, $625

Single Rower, Wren In Fog

I created large format silver photographs of my home town for 20 years from 1990 through 2010. These are rich, beautifully crafted silver images processed for permanence. Vintage prints are made within a year of the photograph create date. My usual practice was to print within a few days or weeks of exposure. There are at most six prints per image; most images have three or fewer prints.

Vintage Photo Of The Day, June 3

Wright Park in North Tacoma still has pits for throwing horseshoes, though I have never seen anyone throw shoes there.  Near the pits an old cherry tree was in full bloom on the bright April day when I made this photograph. Large brick apartment houses ring the park and in those days they were mostly occupied by the elderly who had given up their homes and lawns for the convenience of living near the lovely parkland, and close to medical offices that surround the general hospital a few blocks away.

"Wright Park is the only considerable breathing space reserved to the people thronging the central part of this city...without being cramped for space or menaced by shows and their consequent temptations to spend their spare time within the walls of a packed building rather than in the health giving environment of trees, plants and flowers."
-- 1909, The Board of Park Commissioners in response to organizations wanting to build in the park.

Vintage print, $625

Man Strolling Beneath Wright Park Cherry

I created large format silver photographs of my home town for 20 years from 1990 through 2010. These are rich, beautifully crafted silver images processed for permanence. Vintage prints are made within a year of the photograph create date. My usual practice was to print within a few days or weeks of exposure. There are at most six prints per image; most images have three or fewer prints.

Vintage Photo Of The Day, June 2

The sun rises in the first quarter hour after 5AM in early June during the few weeks before the summer solstice.  June is also a wet month in the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes the systems that spill from the sky at night linger as broken clouds in the morning and glow like the embers of a dying fire when the sun shines through them.

Vintage print, $625

Commencement-Bay--Glowing Embers

I created large format silver photographs of my home town for 20 years from 1990 through 2010. These are rich, beautifully crafted silver images processed for permanence. Vintage prints are made within a year of the photograph create date. My usual practice was to print within a few days or weeks of exposure. There are at most six prints per image; most images have three or fewer prints.

Vintage Photo Of The Day, June 1

Under the bright sun of August, above the beach piled with gravel, mussel shells, and pale drift wood, a red cedar tree held fast to the ground with vines of periwinkle crawling around its base. The light shown directly on the cedar's bark at mid afternoon, setting off the parallel striations left by rapid growth.  Under the bright sun the periwinkle's leaves appeared metallic and burnished. The vine has no thorns and throughout the year puts its blue flowers up against the leaves of dark green.

Vintage print, $625

Cedar And Periwinkle

I created large format silver photographs of my home town for 20 years from 1990 through 2010. These are rich, beautifully crafted silver images processed for permanence. Vintage prints are made within a year of the photographs create date. My usual practice was to print within a few days or weeks of exposure. There are at most six prints per image; most images have three or fewer prints.

Proctor Street Bridge

The bridge is just a couple of blocks from home. It was built in 1927, then rebuilt in 2006. The roadway is wide and the deck is high above the trail below it. Seven thousand cars and trucks cross it daily. Tacoma's shoreline is cut by deep gullies. As the city grew Tacoma bridged these gullies with arched spans of concrete. The area is rich with aggregate stone pushed to the water by glaciers, which made concrete the material to use.

Original photographs; poster 17x19, $25

Vintage Silver Prints of Tacoma Private Sale in June 2018

I will host a private sale and viewing of my extensive collection of vintage prints of Tacoma during the month of June 2018. I created large format silver photographs of my home town for 20 years from 1990 through 2010. These are rich, beautifully crafted silver images processed for permanence. Vintage prints are made within a year of the photographs create date. My usual practice was to print within a few days or weeks of exposure. There are at most six prints per image; most images have three or fewer prints. Since this is a private viewing and sale, those interested should send a request for an appointment to cpetrich@coolphoto.com by May 30, 2018.  Appointment times are limited.