Life-long Passion
About Gary Swinton
“It is an absolutely tremendous experience teaching my daughters and grandchildren. It is such a joy seeing the legacy of my photography continue with my children and grandchildren.”
Award-winning photographer Gary Swinton has been fascinated with the art of the camera since he was a young boy. One of his earliest memories of asking for something for Christmas was when he was 5 or 6 years old. He wanted a camera. He got a little box film camera that year. In those days, when film was an expensive commodity, he was lucky to get to use one roll of film a year. His favorite subjects were family and his beloved dog.
When Gary was 10 years old, he had a next-door neighbor who taught microbiology and photography. He was a kind man who saw Gary catching on quickly when he started mentoring the young lad in photography, even allowing the budding photographer to sit in on college-level classes. Gary’s neighbor started short-term loans of a Contax IIIA 35 millimeter manual camera in order for him to begin experimenting with professional-grade equipment.
Between the ages of 10 and 15, Gary learned all the basics of manual film photography including developing and printing. His kind and patient teacher made Gary keep a log in a notebook, exposure by exposure, setting a solid foundation for his technical knowledge.
When Gary was 15, he started working for the Pratt Tribune developing and printing photos every morning while occasionally participating with news photo assignments. For one of those assignments, Gary shot a photo of Deborah Irene Bryant in 1965 winning the Miss Kansas Pageant that ended up going worldwide on the Associated Press wire. The AP photographer liked Gary’s photo so much that he bought the rights to put the photo out on the wire. It was shot using the Contax IIIA with a complex adaptation intended for a microscope that his mentor configured with a mirror contraption that used bellows as a focusing mechanism. It was an awkward approach, but it worked.
Gary’s next camera was a Pentax Spotmatic that he used throughout high school. Upon graduating he got his first Nikon in 1969, a Photomic FTN, that he used along with other Nikon bodies and lenses throughout his time at Pratt Community College and then at Kansas State University (K-State). He has faithfully used all Nikon ever since with some medium format Hasselblads.
Shooting football games and other events, Gary was known to haul around four different camera bodies and six or more lenses. That was in the days before auto focus zoom lenses that covered a variety of focal lengths, and the ISO could not be changed mid roll in film cameras. So, he needed different combos of bodies and lenses to adapt to the fast-changing environments. It was a completely different world of photography than what is offered today. That world required an extremely high level of knowledge of the mechanisms and technology of manual photography.
At Pratt and K-State, Gary worked on yearbooks and school newspapers. By senior year Gary had become the head staff photographer, a position of considerable responsibility overseeing a crew of a half dozen other students. The yearbooks received the highest rating of “All American” both years Gary was at K-State, being lead photographer during his senior year.
His position was particularly significant because K-State put out a 20-to-28-page
newspaper, 5 days a week. The paper was student owned and
had its own press. It covered sports, local news, and college events and
set the stage for Gary’s direction in professional photojournalism.
During that time, he also shot for Wichita television news stations, the Witchita Eagle as a stringer, and taught some multi-day sessions for high school student yearbook photographers.
During his senior year at K-State in 1973, Gary finished 13th in the nation for the William Randolph Hearst Photojournalism contest for a photo portfolio which included images representing sports, hard news, and a photo story about children with special needs.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism, Gary was realizing that he was developing hand tremors and his ability to hold a camera was declining. It was much later in life that a neurologist suspected that Gary’s “essential tremors” were possibly caused by exposure to dark room chemicals.
Fresh out of college, Gary taught photography and journalism at Pratt Community College, which produced a weekly newspaper and yearbook. Then, to fill the gap before joining the Army, he started working on a 35,000-head hog farm. Within a couple of years after his college graduation, Gary joined the Army to get the GI Bill and to learn another means of work.
While on his first day in Berlin, Germany, waiting to meet his Battalion Commander, Gary was sitting outside the office listening to the commander ranting and raving about the poor quality of photography covering his battalion for Berlin Observer newspaper.
Gary happened to have a Halliburton case with two Nikon cameras and lenses with him. He immediately let his new commander know that he held a journalism degree from K-State, and years of experience in developing photos and writing stories.
Gary had signed up for 11 B, light weapons infantry, for his military occupational specialty. At that first meeting with his commander, Gary was immediately assigned to the headquarters company as the battalion representative for the Berlin Observer – a position he held for around two years. When he wasn’t working as an Army journalist he took many side assignments like teaching combat water survival with his Red Cross instructor qualifications from his teen years.
With his camera always in tow, he accompanied his battalion in West Germany on all field assignments including cross country skiing training, helicopter training exercises, and even a training stint with the 23rd West German Mountain Infantry.
Four of the photos of his battalion were selected to be exhibited at the Kammergericht building in Berlin which was home to the Berlin Air Safety Center, a four-power organization that operated from 1945 to 1990. The images were blown up to 20 x 24. From a 35mm film it took sophisticated facilities to accomplish such a large format and reflected the status his work had earned.
One of the images stands out in Gary’s memory: Always pushing the limits of ingenuity and creativity, the particular image was of a smokey scene in which Gary used rudimentary slaved flash units to backlight the smoke and front light the figures in the foreground.
After the Army, Gary used the GI Bill to go to the University of Southern Maine
and was able to earn his degree in accounting in 1983. However, his photographic
activity languished for several decades because he no longer had the constant
assignments and excitement of his work in the Army. Gary felt very disgruntled
with photography for some time due to the physical handicap his tremors created,
but he still endeavored to take photos inspired by his two daughters Cubby and Amy.
At one point Gary overheard someone discussing photography and the struggles and challenges they were having which prompted him to offer some advice about ISO and F Stops. That interaction turned into a conversation that led Gary to shift from journalistic photography to artistic photography using a tripod to compensate for the worsening hand tremors. From then, a whole journey into artistic photography began that would lead to statewide exhibitions and numerous awards.
He didn’t want to have the same look for all his photos, like some other photographers who have a similar style among all their images. So, Gary developed a goal not to become a pattern photographer. He began acquiring a large collection of equipment from super-wide-angle, super-telephoto, and macro lenses to extension tubes, multiple flash units capable of radio control, and monopods in addition to versatile tripods.
Gary’s subject matter began to cover a wide spectrum of scenes from land and seascapes, historic buildings, architectural work, athletic and aerial events, to wildlife and elements of the natural world with a particular fascination for orchids and other flowers.
This new expansive repertoire of imagery led to Gary’s decision in 2008 to participate in art and crafts shows throughout the State of Maine on rigorous schedules from spring through the Christmas season.
He began printing his work on a large format printer capable of producing 17” prints. Subsequently, Gary upgraded his printing capabilities to a 24” printer and now uses a mammoth 44” printer which can print on photo paper or canvas. His work is available as archival quality matted prints or canvas gallery wraps.
Gary has participated in well over 100 shows, and since 2022 he has dedicated all proceeds toward the education of his grandchildren.
His favorite shows have been the Norway Arts Festival,
the Bethel Art Fair, and the Moore Park Art Show in South Paris,
at which he won numerous ribbons in judged competitions and
purchase awards sponsored by notable businesses.
In 2008 when he started full force back into photography, Gary also started teaching adult education photography classes at Gardiner High School, and later at Freeport High and Turner High schools. At one point he was teaching in all three locations weekly. He also began mentoring numerous budding photographers with high-level, one-on-one instruction.
His teaching goes far beyond the use of the equipment but also into the artistry of perspective, contrast, lighting, composition and more.
Among his most meaningful and fulfilling experiences as a photographer has been teaching his daughters Cubby and Amy and his grandchildren Isaac and Riley. All of them have become highly skilled photographers and have learned the technology of printing and gallery wrapping. He heavily credits his children and grandchildren with enabling the continuation of his shows and exhibitions since 2020.
Most of Gary’s time with photography now is spent shooting his grandchildren’s athletic, scouting, and U.S. Navy Sea Cadet events as well as mentoring budding photographers and providing private instruction.
