Frank E. Cricchio Fellowship Paper: Making Faces For Memories

By Frank Cricchio
M. Photog. Cr., Hon. M. Photog., A.S.P., C.P.P.
Hon. M. Photog., Mexico

Images and expressions, designed with the art elements of line, form, shape, color, and texture, create faces for memories. Combine these art elements with a total expression; one portraying the inner feelings of a person and the other graphically depicting one's outer features, and a professional portrait is created.

Professional portraits have been in vogue since master painters were hired by the elite to depict and preserve, in a most artistic way, themselves and their loved ones.
With the advent of photography, it was thought that everyone could be an instant artist. This was soon found to be false, because the skill of a good artist did not lie in the type and quality of his tools, but in his ability to see and communicate his feelings.

Putting all the ingredients of a proper art elements together does not always make a successful painting or photographic image. The ingredients must be so arranged to give balance and have a center of interest. In a portrait, the inner feelings that you cannot see must be portrayed in an outer expression. This combination in the final image is tested for the viewer. A standard of "fine art" in portraiture is achieved when there is an equivalence between the maker of the image and the viewer. This communication is a silent interpretation of pure inner enjoyment and should give great satisfaction of having reflected a memory. That is the purpose and intent of a fine art portrait. Today, professional portraiture through photography is standing on the threshold as the standard of fine art.

The tools, techniques, and skills of a photographer are constantly being improved and challenged so the one can reach out and try to produce that utopia of an image. What an ambition to be accomplished!

As a young boy, the fascination of a hidden image excited my curiosity. At age 12, in a darkened room, I experienced how long it took to develop a single roll of film in a tray of 16 minute Microdol developer and 10 minute acid fixer. That enthusiasm is still with me years later.
My success was stimulated by enthusiasm and later combined with the three D's of desire, discipline, and direction, which supplied me with the courage to pursue a career in photography. My family did not have the economic level to send me to photography school for a formal education. It was strictly up to me to seek out the knowledge I desired. Being convinced, that from being from a small town and having little money had nothing to do with the talent or the knowledge, I began to study photography seriously at age 14. The public library supplied sources of information. After reading most of the photography books at the library, I turned to reading magazines and practicing on my own. A local camera supply store owner, Bob Spooner, encouraged and guided me in the early days. At age 16, while in high school, two of my teachers, Mrs. Ethel Redman and Mrs. Laverna Kiefer, helped mold and guide my career.
My parents sacrificed to buy my first expensive camera, a 2 ¼ x 3 ¼ Graphic that I called "Theresa". Space was set aside in our garage for a darkroom and with that my career was set. Friends and relatives began to want photos for free and then for hire. By the time I graduated from high school, I had saved enough money to enter college.

I had my heart set on Brooks School of Photography, but I could not afford the tuition and was scared to go that far from home. Friends encouraged me to go to the University of Texas. I had never left home, but packed my suitcase and caught a bus the very next day for college. When I arrived, I had no place to stay, no job, nor any idea of what college was like. Before the next day was over, I found a job, home, and selected a new career, chemical engineering. Unfortunately, the University of Texas did not offer a degree in photography.

After four and a half years of college, and switching majors from chemical engineering to journalism to business management. I graduated from Lamar University. The Sears-Roebuck Co. in Port Arthur provided my first full time job in the advertising department. My assignment was ad layout and statistical projection.

Although I had formerly sought an education and work in other vocational areas, I never stopped pursuing knowledge in photography. On April 16, 1958, this burning direction finally became a reality. I opened a small studio in a 15x 30-foot building. The studio was so small that the equipment had to be moved out the back door to accommodate a portrait sitting. If it rained, appointments had to be canceled. The economy of the country was poor and mine was worse. Two people stand out in my mind that gave me the most encouragement during these years: Leonard Duckett, the city editor of The Port Arthur News, and Doug Thompson, the manager of our local T.V. station. It was Doug who hired me on retainer to photograph the news events of our community. Doug was kind enough to give me a credit line on TV newscasts for all of my photographs that were used. This became my first TV advertising campaign. Leonard used many of my photographs with credit lines in our newspapers. He encouraged me to research the possibility of doing a Run of Press color with plastic engraving plates. We did not know it could be done, and began to project at full speed. New densitometry equipment was purchased and research began. After many hours of study and testing we ran our first ROP color with plastic plates on Christmas Day of 1960. An assignment of one ROP color photograph per week for front page publication with a credit line was awarded to Cricchio Studio because of this research and success. These two mediums of communication, TV and newspaper, gave my business the necessary exposure for my customers to realize that there was a Cricchio Studio.
In 1966 the United Press International award our local newspaper the ROP Color of the year award for photography that we did. Densitometry intrigued me, and I continued researching the affect of light on color negative film at different intensities.

After plotting the H and D curves of all three layers of CPS Kodak Ektacolor film, it was noted that the response to color balance in the low light level was not the same as that at a higher light levels. In my everyday studio photography, I consistently noted that the color of brown was shifting toward the blue direction in the shadow area. Densitometry studies of what was happening in the shadows revealed that after a certain exposure level this problem disappeared. Little did I know that other photographers were experiencing the same problems in the shadow areas of their color photographs. I applied this information to my portraits and submitted them in the next Southwestern Photographers Association print competition. They were awarded the top trophy for color portrait photography.

My colleagues at this convention asked many questions about the techniques used to produce the deep saturation and true color balance throughout all the tones of the low-key photographs. These questions encouraged me to write my first article entitled "Why Brown Suits Go Blue". This information was revised and expanded and put into a "Learn and Earn Kit", which was encouraged by Dick Davies of Meisel Photochrome Corporation.
In 1966, I attended Winona School of Photography to take a Basic Portrait Photography course, taught by Leo Stern, Buster Orman, and Doug Parsley. This was a black and white lighting course on portraiture. I had brought samples of my color portrait work for the three instructors to critique. All three instructors encouraged me to submit these samples to the Professional Photographers of America National Competition and began working for my Masters Degree. The encouragement was well taken and in 1970 at the Las Vegas Beecon I was honored to receive the Master of Photography Degree.

In 1970, I returned to Winona as an instructor in the advanced portrait course at Winona that polished my lighting techniques. Teaching portrait lighting at Winona formulated my lighting patterns that were designed to achieve the maximum specular highlights in a photograph. My "angels touch" lighting pattern, designed for glamour portraits for women, is being applied by many of my students today.

In 1966 Bill Bell encouraged me to assimilate my ideas, thoughts, and photographic knowledge for a program in New Mexico when he was scheduled to be president. By the summer of 1969, I had accumulated enough speaking merits to receive the Photographic Craftsmen Degree. During this time I was submitting in PSA Competition and had accumulated 500 accepted prints with 56 first-place gold medals. In 1967, the number of prints that I had accepted for exhibition ranked me tenth in the world as a pictorial color print exhibitor. These accomplishments prompted an invitation for me to exhibit 35 prints on one man show at Photo Expo '69 at the New York Coliseum.

Acting as a teacher and lecturer throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia has developed my viewpoint on professional portraiture into an international scope. The years between 1966 and 1977 were some of my most rewarding years in photography.
One particular year in my life stands alone as one of excitement and fulfillment. Some of the member of the Professional Photographers Guild of Houston had encouraged me to become involved in association work. At the same time local friends promoted my interest in the Rotary Club of Port Arthur. Bill Bell and Greer Lyle spurned my interest in association work on the national level. By 1974, all of this encouragement came to a climax. I had the honor of being President of my local Rotary Club, President of the Texas Professional Photographers Association, and chairman of the Portrait Division for PP of A during the same year. With so much to do, it took the courage and support of my wife, Bea, to help me fulfill all the obligations that were demanded of these positions. Serving as the 1984 President of the Professional Photographers of America brought me into contact with many wonderful people that constitute our national organization. The fellowship that comes with these organizations far outweighs the work that is demanded from them. I would encourage every young photographer to set his goals in life on a profession that pleases him and to serve his profession to the best of his ability, molding his personal life with high standards in order that he can build bridges for those that follow him.

A portion of my President's message from the March 1984 Professional Photographer expresses my feelings about our profession and those who serve: Seek excellence for yourself, family, and friends. Reach out like a giant sponge and absorb all that is good and beautiful. Then exhale with the force of a whirlwind and spread this good and beauty among all mankind. Spread joy and happiness like the force of a million birds in flight. Be not a critic nor an instrument to measure that which is here, but be the energy of happiness that is everywhere! Alert the awareness of the inner feelings in others, so that they may seek excellence in themselves, and be guides toward a richer life. Do this in and with your photography.

Yes! You are more than a photographer; you are an instrument of happiness seeking excellence in your subject and yourself. Your photographs are the creation of excellence and perfection. Mediocrity is not acceptable to you. Excellence is. Let's not stop with excellence in ourselves and in our business. We need a balanced diet of excellence. DIVORCE YOURSELF FROM MEDIOCRITY. How do you do this on a constant basis? By being prepared for all your assignments mentally, with your skills from experience, and your knowledge from education. It's time to take inventory of our mental attitude, knowledge and skill, and improve and expand upon these three ingredients that are necessary for excellence. After inventory comes awareness and time for a judgment in order to improve.

Adjust your mental attitude to accomplish the impossible of today, so that it will be reality tomorrow. Expand your knowledge in your everyday experience to develop you skill to eliminate and divorce yourself from mediocrity. And the true quality of life will enter into your living, loving and learning and give meaning to your life and photography.

Two philosophies of life govern my thoughts. Never expect, but always appreciate. Each of us has the right to disagree, but we do not have the privilege to be disagreeable. From difference of opinion flows progress. Being disagreeable encourages failure.

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