Patti At The Piano, Today's Coolphoto

We retrieved this Gulbransen upright from the basement of my parents’ home where it had been since we moved in some 20 years before. What took eight hours for two men from the moving company to get in, my two friends and I got out in forty five minutes, door to door. The basement door was at the foot of a stairway ten feet below. The secret was to ask my father Jim, a naval architect and marine engineer, to look at it. “They had trouble because the piano was too big for the well and they spent all those hours lifting and turning it to fit into the door. Just build a platform to raise it about a foot above the floor of the well,” he said.

Worked like a champ. Thanks Dad, you’re brilliant!

Todays Coolphoto 20190424

Patti At The Piano, Tacoma, 1996, (Vintage Silver)
Print 18164
Original Date 1996
Print Date 2096
Size 10x8
Format Silver
Edition One Only
Stamp On Back
Price $625


First Ever Photograph of a Human Being —Boulevard du Temple in Paris (1838) by Louis Daguerre. In the bottom left hand corner is a man who was having his shoes shined.

First Ever Photograph of a Human BeingBoulevard du Temple in Paris (1838) by Louis Daguerre. In the bottom left hand corner is a man who was having his shoes shined.

Back in the day when I was young and excited by the great photographs of the street I had seen, I stepped out the door to get some of the same. The shuffle and rhythm of past shooter’s footsteps echoed before me, along with the click of their shutters and their gasps of surprise.

Street Photography is the original focus of photography; its subject most quickly and easily captured and recognized. And even now, we look for those looks on the faces sent our way as we rush past.

For the next few days I’ll be showing my latest finds. I’ll be showing faces as they pass, and the wake of others that have already sailed by. I’ll be showing scenes that grabbed me by the shoulders and cried, “Did you see that? Did you SEE THAT!”

Vintage - I printed the photograph within a year of the original exposure.
Archival Pigment - Printed in my studio using computer technology with pigmented inks on acid and lignin free paper.
Silver - Printed in my darkroom on gelatin silver paper. These prints are double weight on a cotton fiber base.

Price does not include shipping or taxes.

Christopher Petrich is a photographer active in the Pacific Northwest. He is based in Tacoma Washington where he grew up and raised a family. Over his 50 year career he has worked on projects in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan as well as in 23 American states coast to coast. He has placed his work in corporate and private collections worldwide.  

Street Smarts, Today's Coolphoto

This boy was lost in a physical reverie, trying to climb up the small slope on cardboard in stocking feet. He would slip and fall forward every time, over a dozen tries, until he saw me, and then he twirled around, only to drop onto his butt.

Todays Coolphoto 20190423

Pirouettes On Cardboard, Tacoma (2019)
Original Date 2019
Print Date 2019
Size 11x9
Format Archival Pigment
Edition Open
Stamp On Back
Price $250


The contrast between the dark gallery wall and the well-lit hall outside was compelling in its simplicity. Then the boy walked into my frame and transformed the image into beauty. I love this image.

Todays Coolphoto 20190423

The Boy deYoung, San Francisco (2014)
Original Date 2014
Print Date 2019
Size 11x9
Format Archival Pigment
Edition Open
Stamp On Back
Price $250


First Ever Photograph of a Human Being —Boulevard du Temple in Paris (1838) by Louis Daguerre. In the bottom left hand corner is a man who was having his shoes shined.

First Ever Photograph of a Human BeingBoulevard du Temple in Paris (1838) by Louis Daguerre. In the bottom left hand corner is a man who was having his shoes shined.

Back in the day when I was young and excited by the great photographs of the street I had seen, I stepped out the door to get some of the same. The shuffle and rhythm of past shooter’s footsteps echoed before me, along with the click of their shutters and their gasps of surprise.

Street Photography is the original focus of photography; its subject most quickly and easily captured and recognized. And even now, we look for those looks on the faces sent our way as we rush past.

For the next few days I’ll be showing my latest finds. I’ll be showing faces as they pass, and the wake of others that have already sailed by. I’ll be showing scenes that grabbed me by the shoulders and cried, “Did you see that? Did you SEE THAT!”

Vintage - I printed the photograph within a year of the original exposure.
Archival Pigment - Printed in my studio using computer technology with pigmented inks on acid and lignin free paper.
Silver - Printed in my darkroom on gelatin silver paper. These prints are double weight on a cotton fiber base.

Price does not include shipping or taxes.

Christopher Petrich is a photographer active in the Pacific Northwest. He is based in Tacoma Washington where he grew up and raised a family. Over his 50 year career he has worked on projects in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan as well as in 23 American states coast to coast. He has placed his work in corporate and private collections worldwide.  

Today's CoolPhoto 4/19/2019



The only route to the south end of Vashon Island is by ferry from Point Defiance to Tahlequah. For a young family, the ride represented a cheap outing and a chance to be on the water in summer. The passage is deep, over 90 fathoms at one point en route, and over the years we have seen whales and dolphins swim near as we crossed. We crossed on the ferry Hiyu in 1982.

Todays Coolphoto 20190419

On The Ferry To Vashon, Tacoma, 1982, (Silver)
Print 18163
Original Date 1982
Print Date 2008
Size 10x8
Format Silver
Edition One Only
Stamp On Back
Price $625


Vintage - I printed the photograph within a year of the original exposure.
Archival Pigment - Printed in my studio using computer technology with pigmented inks on acid and lignin free paper.
Silver - Printed in my darkroom on gelatin silver paper. These prints are double weight on a cotton fiber base.

Price does not include shipping or taxes.

Christopher Petrich is a photographer active in the Pacific Northwest. He is based in Tacoma Washington where he grew up and raised a family. Over his 50 year career he has worked on projects in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan as well as in 23 American states coast to coast. He has placed his work in corporate and private collections worldwide.  

Today's CoolPhoto 4/14/2019

VINTAGE SILVER

Stamped and noted on back. One only.

This is a childhood friend named Jim Coblentz. We were out at Fox Island at my family’s beach place. I think he reminds me of Dwalin from Lord Of the Rings.

Vintage - I printed the photograph within a year of the original exposure.
Archival Pigment - Printed in my studio using computer technology with pigmented inks on acid and lignin free paper.
Silver - Printed in my darkroom on gelatin silver paper. These prints are double weight on a cotton fiber base.

Price does not include shipping or taxes.

Note: Many customers have told me that they prefer loose prints for their collection since they store their fine prints in a box with tissue interleaving. Assuming this, I will ship without overmat, unless you request otherwise.

Today's CoolPhoto 4/13/2019

VINTAGE SILVER

Title: Man Strolling Beneath A Cherry Tree in Wright Park, Tacoma (Vintage Silver)
Date Of Image: 1994
Date Of Print:
1994
Size: 10x8
Format: Vintage Silver
Price $625

Vintage - I printed the photograph within a year of the original exposure.
Archival Pigment - Printed in my studio using computer technology with pigmented inks on acid and lignin free paper.
Silver - Printed in my darkroom on gelatin silver paper. These prints are double weight on a cotton fiber base.

Price does not include shipping or taxes.

The Art Of It - What Do You See?

When my friends talk photography there is no end to theorizing why it is art, and why it always seems to miss being ART. Such has always been the case from the beginning nearly two hundred years ago. The first photographic process — heliography — was invented around 1824 by Nicéphore Niépce.

Over lunch at the Office tavern down the street a few weeks ago my friend Dave and I renewed the discussion. I said it comes down to the one thing that is true for all people viewing photographs, which is the one question always relevant, always appropriate, always timely.

What do you see?

Leigh, Malibu (2019)

Leigh, Malibu (2019)

A photograph presents itself as something whole and entire within a frame. It prompts people to make sense of it, to tell the story of it. And not just any story but the only story that matters; it is the story of what we see based on the life we have lived. Sometimes aided by a caption, we want to complete a photograph by filling in its background, and doubly so if there is a person in the frame. We want to know just who it is and what she is doing.

We have eyes to see; this is the most basic of our sensations. The artfulness of a photograph draws you to it and into it, capturing your eye and captivating your imagination so that you want to keep looking, and wondering, hey, what’s going on there?

A photograph stands outside of our consciousness as the world itself does. Therefore when we create a photograph we are putting what is outside, inside. When we see a photograph we are moved to tell the story particular to the only thing we can truly speak of with absolute authority, ourselves.

So when I am with someone who is looking at one of my photographs, I ask.

What do you see?