Frank Edward Cricchio Extended Biography

Frank Cricchio was once asked why he worked so hard to get to the top of his profession. His answer: "From down at the bottom I can help only a few, but from the top I can help so many more."

Cricchio has traveled with this attitude throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, the Pacific Rim and Australia on his seminar tours. He has appeared on national Professional Photographers of America (PPA) programs. His drive to help other photographers has led him to volunteer for many PPA offices, including president in 1984.

When Cricchio was growing up in Port Arthur, Texas, photography excited his imagination. At age twelve, in a darkened room, he experienced how long it takes to process a single roll of film in a tray for sixteen minutes in Microdol developer and ten minutes in acid fixer. The enthusiasm for photography that experience generated in the young Cricchio is still with him.

Cricchio's family could not afford to send him to photography school. He had to learn the craft on his own. Convinced that being from a small town and having little money had nothing to do with possessing talent or knowledge, Cricchio began studying photography seriously at age fourteen. The Port Arthur Public Library supplied him with resources. After he had read every photography book there, he started reading magazines and practicing on his own. A local camera supply store owner encouraged Cricchio and guided him in the early stages. At sixteen, two of Cricchio's high school teachers helped mold and guide him toward a photography career.

His parents sacrificed to buy him his first expensive camera, a 21/4"x31/4" Graphic he named "Theresa". He set aside space in the garage for a darkroom, and started his photography career. Friends and relatives began ordering photos from Cricchio for free, then for hire. By the time he graduated from high school, Cricchio had saved enough money to start college.

"I had my heart set on Brooks Institute of Photography, but I couldn't afford the tuition," says Cricchio. "Friends encouraged me to attend the University of Texas (UT). I had never left home before, but I packed a suitcase and rode a bus to college."

After arriving at UT, Cricchio had no place to stay, no job, nor any idea of what college would be like. Before his first day was over, he found a job, home, and selected a new major-chemical engineering-since UT did not offer a photography degree.

After 41/2 years of college and switching majors from chemical engineering to journalism to business management, Cricchio graduated from Lamar University, in Beaumont, Texas. His first job out of school was doing ad layouts and statistical projections for a Sears's advertising department in his hometown.

Although he had studied and worked in other fields, Cricchio never stopped learning about photography. In 1958, his burning desire to run a photography business became reality when he opened a studio in a 15'x30' building in Port Arthur, Texas. The studio was so small that he had to move equipment out the back door to accommodate a portrait sitting. When it rained, he had to cancel his appointments.

"Two people stand out in my mind for encouraging me the most during those years: Leonard Duckett, city editor of The Port Arthur News, and Doug Thompson, manager of our local TV station," says Cricchio.

Thompson put Cricchio on retainer to photograph news events, and gave him a credit line on TV newscasts using his photography. This was Cricchio's first TV advertising campaign. Duckett used Cricchio's photographs with credit line in The Port Arthur News, and Duckett encouraged him to research printing Run-of-Press (ROP) color with plastic engraving plates.

After many hours of research and testing, The Port Arthur News ran its first ROP color photograph with plastic plates on Christmas Day in 1960. As a reward for his work, the paper gave Cricchio an assignment of one ROP color photograph per week for the front page with a credit line. In 1966, the United Press International awarded Cricchio and The Port Arthur News the ROP National Color Award.

In 1966, Cricchio attended Winona International School of Professional Photography to take a basic portrait course taught by Leo Stern, Buster Orman, and Doug Pasley. This was a black-and-white lighting course on portraiture, but Cricchio brought color portrait samples for his instructors to critique. All three men encouraged him to enter them in PPA competition and to start work on a Master of Photography degree. He accepted their encouragement and went on to earn that degree by 1970, only four years later. Cricchio presently holds the following degrees: M. Photog. Cr., F-ASP; Hon. M. Pho tog., PPA; Hon. M. Photog., Mexico; Hon. M. Photog., Japan; Hon. Gold Circle, United Kingdom; Hon. Professor, Sam Houston University. His works are published in many languages around the world.

In 1970, Cricchio returned to Winona School to teach an advanced portrait course. During this time, he perfected some of his own lighting techniques. He had polished his lighting style while attending the basic portrait course. But he formulated his lighting technique for achieving maximum specular highlights while teaching at Winona. Many of his former students are using his "angel's touch" and "porcelain" lighting pattern for glamour portraits of women.

Cricchio also submitted images for Photographic Society of America (PSA) competition. PSA accepted more than 500 of his prints and awarded him fifty-six gold medals, enough to win Cricchio the distinction from that association for being the tenth most exhibited color photographer in the world in 1966. This accomplishment earned him an invitation from PSA to exhibit thirty-five prints in a one-man show at Photo Expo '69 at the New York Coliseum.

"The years between 1966 and 1977 were some of my most rewarding in photography," says Cricchio. In 1974, Cricchio became president of his local Rotary Club, president of Texas Professional Photographers association, and chairman of the PPA Portrait Division. He later served as president for the Southwest Professional Photographers Association, president of PPA and President of American Society of Photographers..

"Fellowship that comes from these organizations far outweighs the work they demand," says Cricchio. "I encourage every young person to set goals in life on a profession that pleases him, and to serve it to the best of his or her ability."

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