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| Thursday, December 25, 2003 (RE-PRINTED) | |||||
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Sideways glance at Rick Pickford, photographer
You’ve
made your first million. What do you do? What
movie most influenced your outlook on life?
What’s the best moment of your life so far? If you could have taken any famous picture from
anytime, what picture would it have been? |
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| RICK PICKFORD has found his niche taking photos such as (clockwise, from top left), "First Day of School," "Daddy’s Girl" and his self-portrait. Courtesy photos | |||||
| Photographer Rick Pickford’s life has come into focus | |||||
| By
SHAWN MACOMBERShowcase Correspondent Call it a beautiful catastrophe. Dover photographer Rick Pickford cut his artistic teeth as a youngster running around his father’s auto body shop, darting in and out of the wrecks of others’ misfortunes. |
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| "My
dad had one of those Polaroid cameras that would shoot out those peel-back
prints for his auto body shop, and he’d use it to take pictures of
busted fenders," Pickford said in a recent telephone interview. "Anytime
I came by the shop, I’d ask to use the camera, he’d say, ‘Sure.’
He gave me access to that camera and a file cabinet full of film, and I
was off taking black-and-white shots of just about everything. "It
was kind of a big deal, really," Pickford added. "We weren’t
wealthy, by any means." After high school, however, Pickford decided
to pursue another love at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston: electrical
engineering. Even today Pickford will describe himself frequently as a "gadget
boy" and an "inventor type." The description is fitting: Pickford once designed special solar panels for his parents’ house that fit on window eaves rather than on the roof so they could have solar heat even in the snow-filled winter months. And he was a success working the commercial engineering scene in Boston, making great money and living in Portsmouth. One small hitch: He wasn’t happy. "So one day I’m doing marketing work in my office at Downtown Crossing in Boston, and it hits me that I need to change some things," Pickford said. "So I get home and I tell my wife, ‘Hey, honey, I’m going to change jobs,’ and she was very supportive and said, ‘Sure, go for it.’ It wasn’t until the next day that she thought to ask what I was going to do. I think she was a bit disappointed when I told her I was going into photography." Pickford took the plunge, quickly reacquainting himself with his boyhood love. And he struggled to reconcile his hobby with his livelihood. "Instead of going to ad agencies, I went directly to manufacturers and brought samples show what I was capable of," Pickford said. "I’d look at a $6,000 job and tell them I’d do it for free just to get my foot in the door. It was really hard. I was 30 years old, and I had left a great career to give away my time." A piece of advice his father had given him long ago got him through the low times. "My dad always told me, if you decide to go into business, don’t worry about profitability right away or about setting the world on fire," Pickford said. "He said you worry about getting it right, no matter how long it takes." Pickford’s company, WidgetPix, has been an unqualified success. Pickford attributes at least some of that success to his love for the work. "I love getting out of bed in the morning," Pickford said. "I can work 24-, 36-hour days easily." The local arts community has benefited from Pickford’s career change as well. He has done quite a bit of pro bono work for what he sees as worthy local causes, ranging from helping put together the ad campaign for former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen’s early childhood education initiative to local children’s musician Marcus Gale’s record cover to taking headshots of students in Marshwood Junior High’s latest play, in which his daughter also performed. "Artists have a responsibility to be active within the community that helps support them," Pickford said. "Some of the most worthy community projects really need a well-crafted campaign to get off the ground." As for the future, Pickford is attempting to gain more national exposure and is currently the director of photography on the local independent time travel/holiday film, "The Present." In closing, Pickford has some advice for budding photographers. "A great picture needs to be visually arresting, something that stops you," he said. "But it also has to say something. You have to take the time to be there when the picture you are looking for actually comes out of your subject. "Everyone has many different looks," Pickford said. "You just have to navigate people’s souls a bit to get there."For more information, visit www.widgetpix.com, call 742-8686 or drop by Pickford’s studio at One Washington Center, Suite 102 in Dover. |
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