ABOUT

The ability to elicit an emotion with a photograph has intrigued R.P. “Dick” Washburne since he received a Kodak Brownie for his fifth birthday. Each frame he captured represented a considerable financial commitment, a reality that lead him to contemplate the composition carefully before he pressed the shutter release. During high school, a friend loaned him a camera. As he developed and saw the first images come to life in the dark room, a light turned on in his soul. He read Andreas Feininger’s The Complete Photographer, purchased a used camera and an enlarger, and began to tie all the processes together. In 1969, he moved up to his first Nikon F, but college, law school, career, and marriage replaced his hobby. He picked up the camera again after the birth of his first child and began to look for the light and compositions that caused the viewer to smile.

In 1998, in an effort to take his photography to the next level, Dick spent a year traveling the world and studying the craft of photography and fine print making with some of the most accomplished photographers and printmakers in the world. Lois Greenfield lit the first fire under Dick’s passion in Santa Fe. In Tuscany, Joel Meyerowitz poured gasoline onto the flame. The time spent with Mr. Meyerowitz remains the most influential force behind Dick’s work.

Dick’s photographs appeared regularly in D Magazine for several years. He has also published travel stories alongside his photography in both D and The Robb Report and shot Major League Baseball games for D Magazine’s sports blog. In 2003, his first solo exhibit, a collection of photographs he shot of volunteer doctors in remote areas of Haiti, was shown in Chattanooga. In 2008, Dick’s photographic study of master potter David Hendley was exhibited at the Museum of East Texas and added to its permanent collection.