DEON REYNOLDS, NEVADA PHOTOGRAPHER



Deon Reynolds was born into art. His father was a professor of Design at the Museum Art School in Portland (now known as the Pacific Northwest School of Art), so Deon spent most of his life surrounded by art and artists. A typical family outing was attending a gallery opening.  Deon’s father was also a commercial artist. While working for the McCann Erickson advertising agency, he was responsible for creating the image of the Marlboro Man.

At the age of 7, Deon took his first picture with his father’s Hasselbad.  When he asked his father for more film, his father refused, instead showing him how to make his own pinhole camera and develop his own film, so he could become a real photographer.
Deon was educated at the Museum of Art School, taking all the courses he could as the son of a professor. He learned design and how to draw, which he says is the key to being a good photographer. He quotes the words of advice from his father, “…learn how to draw, and you can do anything in art.” 

Deon has never a course in photography, and after seven years of attending art classes at the Museum of Art School without quite earning a degree, he landed an internship through word of mouth and his network with Lars Topelman, a noted commercial photographer in Portland.  He continued for most of his career in commercial photography.  He never had to hit the streets with a portfolio, his reputation got him the offers.  He shot for catalogues, major corporate clients, and was studio manager for Steve Steckly, another notable Portland photographer.   He describes one incident where a hot- headed photographer, working with him on an ad campaign, threw a Hasselblad at him, nearly decking him and smashing the camera to pieces.

Deon had several mentors, but the only one he liked and respected was his father.  Steve Steckly, a Brookings Institute graduate, although somewhat crazed, was a lighting genius who taught Deon a great deal about light.  In photographing perfume ads, the bottles would have to be emptied because the liquid could not deflect the light correctly. Steve showed him how to set up mirrors behind the bottles to capture the effect of liquid without messing up the lighting.  After a day of photographing perfume bottles, he would go home reeking of perfume.

Twenty years of commercial photography was enough for him.  He found it extremely stressful, although lucrative enough to finance his escape to Eureka, Nevada to open his own gallery.  But, he says, a career in commercial photography ends for women around 40 and for men at around 50.  His father, an extremely successful commercial artist, did not get another job after his 50th birthday.  He was told they were signing on someone younger.   Life after commercial photography usually involves fine art, retail portraiture, stock photo sales, wedding photography and teaching.

We talked about the ups and downs of his career. Besides the extreme stress of commercial photography, he told me a story about his first book, titled “Nevada”.  It’s a series of pictures from all over the State. When it was published in 2001, they held a grand opening and book signing in Reno, Nevada. It was great, they sold every book they had on hand, and had tons of advance orders, they were on top of the world. Then, 9/11 happened two days later and the whole thing went “down the tubes”. Commercial advertising came to a halt. None of the advertisers wanted to pay for ads because if programs are pre-empted by news bulletins, they would lose a lot of money.

When asked where photography is headed, Deon is philosophical.  Photography has gone through many paradigm shifts and it will continue to do so.  Be ready. He recommends that we constantly look at what others are doing, find a niche, and run to Swanny. 
That would be Mary Virginia Swanson of Tucson, Arizona, a photography-marketing consultant and portfolio reviewer. She met with Deon in a private consultation, and he credits her with moving his fine art career to the next level. Her recommendations for his portfolio showing at the PhotoLucida event gained the attention of high-end galleries, notably the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, who now wants to add some of his film work to their permanent collection. 

A note of advice, here – the galleries want their photos to be “precious”, they are not into exhibiting digital prints quite yet, although that is changing at a snails pace.  Precious means film negatives developed with silver, platinum or gold; fine art photography is all about film for now, and there is more money in a silver print than a digital one, for example.  

Deon’s camera equipment includes a disposable plastic Kodak panoramic camera for his panorama black and whites, and a Canon D1 model for his color photos.  He just sold his Hasselblad equipment to move into the digital.  His tripod is a monster, weighing 15 pounds, a Gibson Benbeau that new would be $2,000.00, but he said look on  EBay for some good used deals. He prints his digital on an Epson 4800 printer, and develops his film from his plastic camera in the bathroom at the Gallery. He uses Photoshop CS3 on a MacPro desktop with a giant monitor.

 

Describing his work, Reynolds says, “The panoramas convey the space of Nevada so well. I like the ease and spontaneity of the disposable camera and, since the viewfinder isn’t very accurate, you’re never really sure what you are going to get on film. It’s kind of like Nevada, you are never sure what you are going to find!”




Taken with his Hasselblad, an old railway station

I asked him for some parting words at the end of our interview, and he had plenty, so we continued to talk for another hour. 
Some of his wisdom – Don’t give your work away. Look at what others are charging, and charge accordingly. Don’t let lack of confidence in yourself make you under-price your work, it’s bad for other artists, and demeans your own work.
After you’ve gotten your portfolio together, pay for a consultation with Mary Virginia Swanson. She will point you in the right direction in your career.
Participate in portfolio reviews such as PhotoLucida, to get your work into high-end galleries.
Get rid of all stress. It doesn’t make for good photographs.
Look for your own niche.

 

I asked him about creativity, if he had a routine, like meditation. He said no, he just explores, and he finds photographs. He and his wife take off whenever they can, and just drive everywhere looking for pictures. He told me creativity happens in the field, not the darkroom, and has everything to do with design. If a scene has all the elements of good design, you have a good photograph.

 

Finally, we talked about dye transfer prints.  Trish had an original that she was given after her first commercial photo shoot; it was of a little boy from the knees down, wearing a yellow rain slicker, blue jeans, and Keds, with one shoe untied, in the rain. The colors were spectacularly clean and vivid. Deon explained that dye transfer is a lost art, perhaps only a dozen artists are involved in the process today. Dye transfer is expensive and time consuming, and the material, Pan Matrix Film, is no longer available from Eastman Kodak. We talked about William Eggleston, who is one of the most famous photographers to do dye transfer, and he recommended that I watch the documentary, “William Eggleston and the Real World”.  Deon also recommends “The Impassioned Eye”, about Henri Cartier Bresson, who was a great influence on Eggleston.  Apparently, Bresson drew every day.


Post Script: An introduction to Deon Reynolds from the website, Nevada Culture.org:

“Carson City, Nevada. Photographs by Eureka artist Deon Reynolds are on display in the halls of state government April 6 – April 24 as part of the Legislative eXhibition Series sponsored by the Nevada Arts Council.  Reynolds uses a disposable Kodak panorama camera to shoot his black and white panoramas of Nevada.


Reynolds’ “Nevadaramas” were shown at the McKinley Arts Center in Reno in October 2007. His image “Safety First” won Best of Show at the American Faces and Places exhibit at the 2007 Artown in Reno. In March of 2008 his image “Santa Rosa Range” was selected as one of the 10 winners of “The Biggest Little Art Show: Nevada Wide Open” at Sierra Arts in Reno. His recent work has been exhibited at the Oats Park in Fallon and Metro Gallery in Reno receiving excellent review in the Artweek.

His first book titled “NEVADA” was released in 2001, followed by “Las Vegas: Portrait of a City” in October 2006. His images are associated with one of the county’s most respected fine art stock agencies, monsoonimages.com. Through this and other agencies, Reynolds’ images have been used in campaigns for such clients as AT&T, Boeing, Honda and many others. Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company, Simon & Schuster and other well-known publishers have utilized his photographs for calendars, cards, book covers and music CD covers.

Department of Cultural Affairs, April 6, 2008.  Retrieved July 6 2009 from http://nevadaculture.org/dca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1349&Itemid=336


http://www.deonreynolds.com/