Today we’d like to introduce you to Rich Dunoff.
Hi Rich, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I became interested in Photography when I was a junior in college. I was totally obsessed; it was the only thing I was truly interested in. I attended Penn State University which is in a beautiful part of Pennsylvania, and I immediately began shooting the landscape and nature. Landscapes and nature are still my favorite thing to shoot.
I tried to register for a photography class and was told that there was a 3-year waiting list to enroll in the introductory class. I found that if I transferred to Temple University located in Philadelphia, I would be able to enroll in a photography class and hoped that I might be able to get a job working in a photo studio. Upon enrolling at Temple; I began applying for jobs working in a photo studio, I was fortunate and quickly found a job working as a darkroom technician even though I had no experience. I read a book about working in the darkroom prior to the job interview and fortunately gave the correct answers to the questions. Not to blow my own horn but the job required a warm body that could sit in a completely darkroom without a safe light for an hour at a time and push a button on an automated printing machine; I fit all the requirements.
Fortunately, my supervisor was a very talented photographer and printer. At the end of each day, he and I would process hundreds of printed images. While processing we would talk photography and I learned a ton from him. After a few months of working there our boss suggested that if we wanted to stay after work, we would be able to process and print our own work. Another guy who we worked with also stayed and the three of us a couple of times a week would spend time printing and critiquing each other’s work. That networking experience was one of the best learning experiences of my life.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Pursuing any career in the arts is not a smooth road. It is more like a roller coaster ride. After I finished college, I began working as a freelance assistant and darkroom printer, this experience provided little money but lots of learning experiences. I learned what I liked to do and what I didn’t want to do. I was fortunate to work with some talented and kind photographers who thankfully were happy to share their knowledge and teach, I also worked for a couple that taught me how not to act and were overly protective of their knowledge.
While working as an assistant I was fortunate to also begin freelancing as a photographer. I opened a studio in the early 1980’s. I worked primarily as a commercial photographer and began shooting advertising and industrial photographs for corporate clients. After a couple of years, I began to exclusively work as a shooter. During that period of my career, I was primarily known for shooting color film on location, through my experiences as an assistant I had learned how to shoot color film in available and artificial light and still achieve good color balance and color saturation.
Strangely enough though shooting landscapes is my favorite thing to do, I was usually hired to photograph people. These days when traveling to foreign countries many of the photos I shoot are of the local population. Enclosed are some images that I shot on a recent trip to Southeast Asia.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I spent the first 35 years of my photographic shooting for publication. All my jobs were used for print. My work appeared in corporate brochures, Annual Reports, Magazines, Books and Calendars. I primarily worked on location. Clients hired me, gave me a little background of what they wanted and then sent me to a location to shoot. I was in heaven I was essentially told, “here is the idea we want to illustrate, we want the best image that you can create.”
Many of my competitors were scared to death of shooting in a new environment while I was thrilled and loved the challenge.
I met my wife Sharon in the mid 1980’s, and she became my biggest influence. As I mentioned earlier, life as freelancer is like living on roller coaster. She provided me with stability. We had two children and family became my priority. I began teaching photography at a couple of local Colleges and art centers as a part-time gig and really enjoyed it.
In the early 2000’s clients began demanding digital images as opposed to film, the business began to change, the jobs of shooting location photographs were slowly disappearing, annual reports were going online and no longer using photos and client s were no longer sending me out to shoot jobs with an idea and were now showing me images and asking me to duplicate them on their location. I was frustrated and finding it increasingly difficult to find good shooting jobs.
My wife was working as a teacher in Philadelphia and was searching through a list of available teaching jobs in the city and found a listing for a commercial photography teacher. I applied for the job and 6 months later I found myself teaching at an inner-city high school in Philadelphia. I really loved working with my students and retired after 12 years.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I have been fortunate to have several mentors.
As a photographer I was mentored by my college photography professor Dr. Ed Trayes.
Once out of college I began assisting a few very talented photographers, Tom Crane was a very talented architectural photographer who hired me at first to print for him and then began using me on shooting jobs. At the same time, I also assisted a corporate portrait and fine arts photographer named Doug Mellor. My experiences with the two of them was very helpful in not only learning the creative parts of shooting for clients but also taught me about the business of photography.
Most important of all was a close friend named Ross Watson. Ross owned the local camera store and was very supportive of my career. When I first started freelancing, he provided me with a part-time job when I was not working other jobs. Ross also introduced me to both Doug and Tom as well as many others in the photographic community. My job at the store was to help customers when but when business was slow, he encouraged me to use his phone to make calls to schedule appointments to show my portfolio to local art directors and graphic designers. Ross’s generosity helped launch my career.
Later, when I began teaching, I had other mentors, Ed Trayes my former professor offered me lots of advice on how to approach teaching photography and other friends helped me with class management and teaching strategies that were helpful. I guess the best advice all of them gave me was to form strong networks, with other teachers students and administrators.
Contact Info:
- Website: Http://richdunoff.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richdunoff/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richdunoff
Image Credits
copyright Rich Dunoff 2026
