Plymouth Photo Studio

Plymouth Photo Studio Plymouth Photo Studio has been a downtown Rochester fixture since 1912. Now located in Austin Texas.

In1986 I had just finished more than a few years working construction, it was a welcomed break to be photographing archi...
03/18/2024

In1986 I had just finished more than a few years working construction, it was a welcomed break to be photographing architecture rather then working on it. One of the many benefits of having experience in construction was knowing a lot of the workers and companies that were rebuilding Rochester. A good friend from RIT days, Mark Kaelber, was a mason for our mutual friend, Bill Farmer. Bill had Mark working on the scaffolding surrounding the Powers building, and seeing a good opportunity to get some close ups of one of my favorite buildings, Mark and I climbed all over the building one warm summer evenings. It was quite a treat to be that up close and personal with one of Rochester's iconic buildings. One of the neat features of the Powers building, was that an Architect had built a rooftop apartment. I wish I could remember his name, he got to walk through that great building and had one of the ultimate views of Rochester from the top of the four corners.

Back in the RIT days, one of my majors was Fine Art Photography, as I have shown before, I am a devotee of Pictorialis...
03/15/2024

Back in the RIT days, one of my majors was Fine Art Photography, as I have shown before, I am a devotee of Pictorialism, and I always loved those old shots of architecture of bygone days. One of my Uncles, was a WW2 photographer, he gave me all his old film developing equipment and in the stack of items was around four boxes of 5x7 paper from 1940's. Older paper was renown for it's silver content, so I went around Rochester, a city full of old wonderful architecture and proceeded to depict the city as what I classified as "The Unknown Photographer" I printed these images on the 30 + year old paper and kept the fog marks and black edges as part of the "artistic merit" of the project. There was a base fog on the paper, and lots of tries just came up as gray blobs on the images, but a lot of them printed up just as I hoped. They have an other worldlyness about them and I have always liked the effect that the images combined with the old paper achieved.

Right before I closed on the Photo Studio, my illustrious brother, Ed, (his then wife Pam Roberts, and Tobey, + many oth...
03/05/2024

Right before I closed on the Photo Studio, my illustrious brother, Ed, (his then wife Pam Roberts, and Tobey, + many others) produced the Citizen Sumits, hosted by Phil Donahue, on the USA side, and Valimir Posner on the Russian side. The first program was done at King 5 in Seattle, the second a few years later at a Boston channel. Both programs were syndicated on all the Channels that Phil Donahue's show appeared on. My brother was doing a bunch of documentary style shows, that were on 20/20, 60 minutes and a few ABC specials. They had done a show on the emerging relationships between Russia and the USA , and saw where 200 USA scientist and 200 Russian Scientist used the existing satellite technology and held a conference while the feed existed between the two countries. Ed thought more could be done with this and picked up the phone and called Phil Donahue and pitched his idea, Phil said, find me a Russian me, and lets do it! Ed was able to hook up with Vladimir Posner and things took off from there. The first program from Seattle came off with little hitches and was well received and got some good ratings. The next program had a twist, it was Women to Women, with the entire audience of only women. There was to be a third, from San Francisco to Moscow, where I was intended to fly to Russia, but alas it did not come to pass. These programs were truly ahead of their time, 1985, to the 1990's were a great time for the de escalation of the Cold War, and much progress was made, between our two countries, what seems to be a new standard, is we are going backwards, with tensions increasing, with our support for Ukraine, against obvious Russian aggresion, and the pro Russian facist segment of our congress and senate taking us not towards an understanding of good will with Russia, but instead subjegates us to Putin's ideal of a future world with him at the head. With all that my Brother and people like him achieved back then, to have it all negated makes for a heavy heart.

Main Street in Rochester, historically was always quite busy, the buildings were constructed with merchants on the first...
02/28/2024

Main Street in Rochester, historically was always quite busy, the buildings were constructed with merchants on the first floor, lawyers, accountants, doctors and dentist, etc... on the second and ballrooms and more on the upper floors. As time progressed and buildings became bigger, it's pretty amazing that all of those office buildings were filled with offices, from 5 to 10 stories high. My great grandfather in law had an office on the 5th and 10 story on West Main street for his mortgage company, which I found a 1907 Farmer's almanac ad for. In between the various single stores were large banks and stores like, Sibley's, B F Forman and more. When Main street was redone , I was hired by the bus company to photograph a here and now sort of display, one of the pictures trying to show former busy Rochester in the early 1900's and what it was now, in the late 80's to 90's. It took quite a few trys, as even though it seemed busy to the average person, present day Rochester, paled in comparision the the throng of people back in the day.

As I started to settle into the Photo Studio, I slowly upgraded my lighting equipment, starting with a old Mertz or it m...
02/07/2024

As I started to settle into the Photo Studio, I slowly upgraded my lighting equipment, starting with a old Mertz or it might have been a Honeywell plug in strobe with a mini soft box. Next I built a silk soft frame, that I used a few times, most notably the Butterfly lighting on the Eastman student, (the second shot in the groupings) finally Broncolor came through and offered an overhead lighting package with Broncolor mono strobes on scissor arms so that all the lighting was effectively off the floor, hanging overhead with a really nice balance to it, so you could put the lights right where you wanted them. This was particularly nice in my basicly 10 foot wide studio, where space was at a premium. Although I had experimented with umbrellas, I became a soft box affictionalto and used them religiously for the next thirty plus years. The fun shots were musicians, and TV people, they were use to being in front of a camera, and usually came in with an idea of what they were looking for in a headshot. Carven Eison, (the fellow with the leather cap and coat) came in and wanted a photo for entering a PBS director of the year award, he showed up in a nappy Mr. Rogers type look and we got a shot that was ok. Thinking I was done, the next day Carven arrived in a quite different look, remarking "that other shot just isn't me" we proceeded to do the classic face on with some harder side lighting. I think the shot we picked was the first take, and it was always a favorite of mine. Most of the shots I did in black and white were 4x5, I then got a Mamiya flex with a cool 180mm F1.8 lens, and eventually a Hassalblad. 2 1/4 was a lot of fun, and most people wanted to get something in 12 takes, and it wasn't very often that I shot more that four 4x5's or one roll of 2 1/4. I loved to shot Kodak Plus-X and usually shot one F stop overexpoused and pushed the development for a bit more Gama, even with these more thicker negs, I rarely printed anything with more than a #2 filter in B/W paper. This was the "Art' of photography, with a bit of technical expertise thrown in, I loved doing it, even with all the chemistry and time it took. I always compared it to baking a cake, it takes some time, attention to detail, some good materials and a bit of talent.

I think it's been said that Rochester, at one time, never turned down the chance for a parade. When I first bought the ...
02/05/2024

I think it's been said that Rochester, at one time, never turned down the chance for a parade. When I first bought the studio, Mayor Ryan formed a Downtown enhancement district and gave it a shot to revitialize Main Street. One of the first things they did, ala "Christmans Story" was to have a Macy Store style Christmas parade, complete with helium filled ballons. It actually worked out pretty good, adding in that the weather co operated and as I recalled, it was over 60 + degrees. My kids basicly grew up at the Photo Studio, as we spent a lot of time there, they probaly got tired of all the parades, as there were a lot of them. The 70's to 80"s were definitely atime of downturns for Main Street, but there was a bit of a revival during the late 80's and through the 90's. The street was upgraded, a few new stores moved in, the convention center was built, and finally the Hyatt hotel was finished. Although Sibley's closed, it was replaced with the downtown MCC campus, and it took to the 2000's till Midtown closed. Up until then you could shop downtown, go to resturaunts and have your office downtown, afford parking and get a drink afterwards for happy hour. My wife just looked over my shoulder at these photos and recalled that it was a happy time, and we both teared up a bit. It was thirty years of my life, our lives, we gave to Rochester, I hoped we made it a better place, you live your life, not looking for a parade for payback, but we certainly enjoyed being part of the march of time we spent there.

In the late 80"s to the early 90"s downtown Rochester took some major steps to up it's game. The East side of town from...
02/04/2024

In the late 80"s to the early 90"s downtown Rochester took some major steps to up it's game. The East side of town from Mid Town to four corners, State and Main were finally upgraded from old deteriorating sidewalks to a composite pink paver. Although there were many complaints on the choice of materials etc... it was a big difference to what had been there. It took more than a few more years and the renovation of the sidewalks were extended from State down to Plymouth Avenue. I was always amazed that a major American City had blacktop for it's sidewalks for so many years. The Photo Studio had a big old sign that covered up a nice window and some old signage that got a fresh coat of paint and some cleaning up. The next step was to renovate everything and upgrade the interior, both architecturally and equipment wise.

I had made a pack with myself to own my own studio by the time I was thirty, and at the ripe young age of 29 years and 3...
02/04/2024

I had made a pack with myself to own my own studio by the time I was thirty, and at the ripe young age of 29 years and 364 days, I purchased Plymouth Photo Studio. I was essentially the third owner, I was told a fellow by the name of John Smith, was loaned money by Jacob Rappaport, Jacob's wife, Libby worked at a studio on Clinton Ave. and saw a robust need for photography services in the expanding city of Rochester, so Jacob was paid back, by Mr. Smith teaching him how to take and develop photographs. There are a couple of Smith's listed in early telephone pages with studios on State street, and not to soon circa 1912, Jacob is doing photograhy on West Main Street. It is unclear to me whether he bought out John Smith or simply opened a studio around the cornor from him. When you look at old photos of Rochester Main street, it is a teaming mass of humanity, so it seems there was plenty of business to go around. On my first day of business, with my inherited employee's of Dale and Laurel, who had both worked for Mr. Rappaport for many years, I recall making around 54 dollars. Luckily hope springs eternal and on the next day we pulled in 150 dollars, which in 1986 was a reasonable sum. Dale took the opprotunity to change his status and decided to move on, Laurel worked on and off for me over the next twenty plus years, first getting a job up the street at the competition in McCory's 5& dime store which had a manual photo booth in the front corner of the store. Everything in the studio was at least 50 if not 75 years old, and it all was soaked in fixer, and smelled accordingly. I think for the first year or so, I did things with what was there, and gradually started to make improvments and "modernize"

The next step in my career was to buy a photo studio on Main Street in Rochester, New York. I went from photographing ...
10/03/2023

The next step in my career was to buy a photo studio on Main Street in Rochester, New York. I went from photographing products to nearly 100% photographing people. A lot of what the studio did, was passport and greencard photos, both of which had to follow a set of rules in order to be acceptable by the governing body. I had been working construction for the owners of the building that the studio was in, and because they were unwilling to give a long term lease to any buyers, the owner of the Studio, Lester Rappaport was having a hard time selling. John Foster the landlord, knew I was a photographer, and suggested I fix the plaster that had been steamed off the walls by a faulty radiator, and get a close look at what the studio did, and if I was interested he would loan me a portion of the money to buy the studio.
After a week of watching from my perch on a ladder, truly a birds eye look at things, and running the numbers, it seemed that the 5,000 dollars that I borrowed from John, plus a 3,000 dollar loan from my father, could be paid back with existing business that was walking in the door at that time. With a bit of negotiation I was able to talk Mr. Rappaport into a deal of 6500 for lock, stock and barrel, and before my personal deadline of buying a studio by my 30th birthday, I purchased Plymouth Photo Studio on July 1st, 1985, one day before my July 2nd , 30th birthday.
My dream of owning a studio, being a professional photographer, and my own boss, was realized that day, and proved to be a blessing and a robust adventure at 91 Main Street Rochester, NY.

After RIT, I moved to Boston and worked for a few commercial photographers, mostly Steve Schmitt. Steve was a good guy ...
09/06/2023

After RIT, I moved to Boston and worked for a few commercial photographers, mostly Steve Schmitt. Steve was a good guy and a good photographer, whose assistants were always on notice, as Steve had a habit of throwing his photo gear to them! Besides photography, Steve was constructing a condo on Beacon Street and when he realized that I could do construction work, most of my time ended up renovating his condo. Boston could be a fun city, people were people, and it being a big city, you could find friends, but I was much happier when my soon to be wife joined me. After about a year and a half in Boston, with our first child on the way, we decided to go to Pittsburgh, as the cost of living there was a quarter of Boston, and we would be surrounded by my family. Over the next couple of years, I worked for quite a few of Commercial photographers, David Fleischman, and Mark LeBlou being two noteworthy ones. It was great experience, with a lot more of photography being done, along with a reasonable amount of construction work, building studios, cyclorama's, curved walls for Studio backdrops, and lots of set construction. A really fun build, was creating a photo studio for Philip Pelusi, the Hair Stylist, who loved to take photos of his creations. He had a Hair Studio in the Bank building off of Fifth Avenue right downtown ( I think it was called City Center) and at the top of the building, up a narrow flight of stairs were two nice sized 20 x 20 rooms, with a skylight, where I built him a small cyclorama. Philip and I always had a gas together, he was a really nice guy, always looking to help in any way, and he contributed a lot to us being able to stay in Pittsburgh for that time in a comfortable manner. One of the bigger walls was plastered, with large stress cracks. Philip being in a hurry to get things going with his studio, suggested to "just patch the biggest one" Good at following directions, I proceeded to do just that. Walking up the stairs the next morning, believing that I was going to move onto the next task, we both learned an interesting and important axiom, you might get rid of the biggest crack in the wall, but the next biggest one becomes your next gigantic crack/problem. Philip looked at the wall, shrugged his shoulders and remarked " I guess we have to fix them all"

I think it was in my sophomore year, when the school held a photo show for all years of the photography school. I don't...
09/03/2023

I think it was in my sophomore year, when the school held a photo show for all years of the photography school. I don't remember if they did this year after year, but I was motivated to enter some work and was surprised to see after they were hung that my two entries had be chosen to be part of the RIT permanent collection. I had done both of these shots for an assignment on illustrating a magazine article about a post war couple and my go to models, my roommate and his girlfriend Brian and Gretchen, filled the bill. Coincidently they are married and live in Cape Cod. RIT was a very positive experience, and I learned a lot about the skills needed to be a good commercial photographer. After graduation, many a door opened when the employer found out I was a graduate. The school didn't always have the best of professors, but many of them inspired us to do some good work and as I stated, gave us some important skills to be competent advanced photographers. The best aspect of RIT was the fact at that point in film photography, they had hundreds of state of the art darkrooms, processing equipment, and studios, full of hot lights and strobe lighting equipment, add to the being surrounded by a lot of talented students and you had a very competitive and creative enviroment.

One of the debates at RIT, was the eternal question of whether it's the equipment and technique of the photographer, or ...
09/03/2023

One of the debates at RIT, was the eternal question of whether it's the equipment and technique of the photographer, or his aesthetics? As per usual, it's a bit of both, but to this end, a lot of us rebelled or gave it a shot by using very inexpensive cameras to do our Fine Art projects. I was always fascinated by Pictorialism, with it's emphasis on light and composition vs the sort of Ansel Adams, extra sharp landscape. I had an alter ego, I called the "Forgotten Photographer" and did a series of photos of architecture, some of which I printed on photo paper from the 1930's, that I had picked up from my Uncle who was a WW2 photographer. I had always liked the anonymous nature of older architectural and landscape photos from the early days of photography and wanted to mimic that feeling. I shot a bunch of photos throughout my senior year with a brownie camera that my brother had gotten in the early 60's and also use some more advanced but not by a longshot expensive 2 1/4 camera's. To this day the debate rages on.

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Austin, TX
78717

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+13605508875

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