Today we’d like to introduce you to Dick Patrick.
Dick, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Every year or two I produce an in-depth project that we use to market our studio. The goals of the project reach further than just trying to generate business. We need something with a conceptual thread that has depth and challenges us creatively. It also has to have an emotional appeal that makes us want to work on it and others want to see it.
For this project, I chose to focus my mother, Patsy and more specifically her love of cooking. For her, food is more than nutrition; it is tradition, love, duty and caring for others. Sustenance is almost a byproduct and it serves as a metaphor for a loving and productive life.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As a photographer, a project that is self-generated kind of works in reverse of the commercial world of adverting and marketing. In my world, the concepts, marketing strategies, and design are done first. Those elements are brought to me for study and interpretation where I provide images that tie it all in a bow.
For Patsy, I had an idea of where to start but I needed the story so we could follow the narrative and design photographs to enhance it. Through a friend, I found Amy Bickers in Birmingham, Alabama and she wrote the copy that gave us the core of the piece. From there, we began to highlight sections that leant themselves to beautiful photographs.
This is where the food stylist (Paige Fletcher of foodstylists.com) and I began our collaboration (and it was a TRUE collaboration.) We started picking out recipes and chose a visual language that would remain consistent throughout the book. Once we had a handful of images that we were both happy with, I took those to my old friends Liz Burnett and her partner Jeff Breazeale of The Matchbox Studio. Liz had mentioned working together on a promotional project so I pitched this one to her and showed her the images that Paige and I had produced and she loved it.
From there Liz, Jeff and their talented group of designers took over and came up with several design directions that blew us away. The design we chose required more photographs of the environment Patsy grew up and details plucked from the story in order to balance out the studio work.
After a trip to Mississippi and Alabama and putting in hundreds of miles searching for country homes, cotton fields and churches, I came back to Dallas with the location part of the project complete. It took another 4 months of studio shooting with Paige (between our paying jobs) to finish up the photography and turn over the completed content to Matchbox.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My studio has been in Dallas since 1989. During that time, I have had 3 different studios and I was in my last one for 12 years before finally finding a building that suited me and was a good candidate for a state of the art food photography studio. After a 2 year rehab, it was finished in September 2016 and we shot our first project in October of that year.
For the next year, we continued to refine the space until we got it to the point where we feel it is finished enough to show off to the general public. It’s a beautiful space that works as well for production as any studio I have ever seen or worked in. The kitchen was designed by food stylists for food stylists and I can now treat my clients to a level of comfort I have never been able to offer.
What were you like growing up?
I was born in New Orleans and grew up in the suburbs during the ‘60s. My father was a photographer and I would often accompany him on his projects, which varied from shooting sports for the NFL & ABA to fashion and product photography for high-end retailers and advertising agencies. I had no idea how unique that environment was.
One day I’m walking past the strip clubs on Bourbon Street with my dad and that afternoon I am exploring the bayous and swamps within walking distance from my home. It was an intense blend of urban life, (complete with the turbulence of the movement for racial equality) mixed with unsupervised wandering through the woods and pretending to be Huckleberry Finn.
I think it led to a kind of fascination for both worlds and an insatiable curiosity to learn more. About everything.
Contact Info:
- Address: 8301 Sovereign Row Dallas, Texas 75247
- Website: www.dpatrick.com
- Phone: 214 638 8394
- Email: dpatrick@dpatrick.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dickpatrickstudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dickpatrickstudios
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWKG_JwqbZstjtm0cx6K5A
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