Through our lens: Colin Mulvany

My work as a staff photojournalist for The Spokesman-Review is a kaleidoscope of fleeting moments filled with emotion, beauty and sometimes despair. Each day, I try and capture with my camera a visual reflection of what has happened in our community.

Section:Gallery

Sun., March 25, 2018

It was a breezy day October of 1992. I remember walking out of The Spokesman-Review building with fellow photojournalist Kit King and both of us looking at each other like something was about to happen. It was a feeling. Three hours later, I was standing alone on Ferret Drive in the Spokane Valley. I had made it past the Sheriff’s road blocks and came to the place where a wildfire, fueled by 50-mile-hour gusts was about the hit a block full of homes perched on a bluff. It was eerily quiet, as everyone had been evacuated. There were no firetrucks either, which I thought was strange. Then boom. A wall of smoke and flames roared up the bluff and started to catch several of the homes on fire. With in minutes they were fully involved. I stood there not knowing what to do. There were no cell phones at that time. All I had is my camera. I started shooting pictures as the burning embers started to land on the roofs of the houses across the street. Finally, one firetruck showed up with only one firefighter. He pulled a firehose to the front of Ron Connell’s home and started to spray the raging inferno on the roof. Then he did something totally unexpected. The lone firefighter, realizing saving the burning house was futile, went in the front door, grabbed some family photos off the wall and laid them at my feet at end of the front walkway. “ I can’t save the house, this is all I can do,” said the fireman. Then he drove off. When I looked at the house behind me, I could see the embers starting to turn into flames on the wood-shingled house. Inspired by the fireman, I ran up to the front door and rang the doorbell. No answer. So I tried the door and it was open. I went in the entryway and grabbed the first piece of art on the wall I could find. I headed outside. Then the madness of what I was doing hit me like a ton of bricks. What the hell was I doing? Someone was going to think I was looting the home. I placed the painting back inside. The roof had three hot spots

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
This photo goes way back. It was the first news photograph I had published in The Spokesman-Review. It was around 1982 and I worked in the produce department for Rosauers Supermarkets at their 14th and Lincoln Avenue store in Spokane. Still living in my parents basement, I would walk the four blocks to work each day. On this day, I made my way down the side steps to the front of the grocery store that also included a Lincoln Savings Bank branch. As I turn the corner at the bottom of the stairs I was met with: “Move! There is a bomb right next to you!” Sure enough there was a shoebox sitting outside the bank window. A man had placed the box and went to the pay phone a few feet away and made a call to the bank. “Throw a bag full of money out the front door and I won’t blow up the bank,” was the story I was told by an officer. I decided to run home and grab my new Nikon FE SLR camera and return to shoot the news event. Out of breath and sweating from running, I photographed these three Spokane police officers, who, using a string to pull the box away from the window, were now hovering over the shoebox trying to make a determination whether it really contained a bomb - or not. My shift in the produce department could not ended fast enough. I ran home and processed the film and made an 8 x 10 print in my home darkroom (hence why I still lived in my parents basement.) A friend of mine suggested I take it to the newspaper and see if they would buy a print of it. Off we went to the old Spokesman-Review building, where at this time, there was still and elevator lady who pushed the button of the floor you wanted to go to. All I remember was walking into that smoke-filled newsroom with banging teletype machines and ringing phones and feeling the energy of the moment. I sheepishly walked up to the city editor and told him what I had shot. He was actually nice to me and said he needed something for the Region page. The next morning, my photo played large in the paper.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
I was getting frustrated. I’d been cruising for a feature picture for over five hours. A little league tournament was taking place at Holmes Elementary and I decided to get out of my car and see if I could make an interesting snap. I found these kids trying to catch a fly ball from their coach during warmups. I banged off a couple of dozen frames and headed back to the paper to process and print. Little did I know then how much this photo would impact me in a good way. About six months after this photo ran in The Spokesman-Review, I received a call from a photo editor from Life magazine. He loved the photo and wanted to run in on the back page of the magazine in a section they call “Just One More” There is something about being published in Life. It was a magazine I grew up with and whose pages were filled with images from photographers who inspired me to be a photojournalist. A few months after it ran in Life, I get a call from an art director who represented Coca Cola. She wanted to buy the little league photo for an ad with the tagline: “Always a great catch.” I told her that I didn’t own the photograph and that the newspaper would never sell an editorial photo for an advertisement. She didn’t skip a beat. “Would you come to Los Angles and reshoot it?” Stunned, I told her I needed to check with my boss and I get back to her. The next thing I know, I’m in Hollywood preparing to shoot the ad for Coca Cola. Then It got weird. At 10 a.m. on the morning of the shoot, I get call from my producer (the guy tasked with taking care of all the arraignments) who told me to turn on the TV. On the screen was an arial shot of of Pasadena. He said, “Colin that is your ball field and it is on fire.” It was the day in 1993 when LA burned - some 200+ homes were lost to wildfires. He was flustered. We had hired a little league team, rented an RV for the art director, had bought “coke approved products” as refreshments during the shoot. I had an assistant and about a half-dozen o

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
Sometimes I have to remind myself that it is OK to take a non-work related photograph. Sunsets happen everyday. It was the graphic look of the silhouetted telephone poles stacked up against the orange sky that made me pull over in Sept. of 2011. Thankfully, I had my 20-year-old Nikon 300 mm f/4 lens in my trunk. The telephoto effect worked perfectly on this highway scene leading into Medical Lake, Washington. Sometimes a pretty picture is just that. Looking at this image just makes me feel good.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
As the temperature rises above freezing, an evergreen bush on Spokane's South Hill sheds its icicles Monday afternoon, Jan. 23, 2011.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
A mist dissipates through Manito Park's Japanese Gardens as maintenance workers vent the sprinkler system in preparation for closing the garden for winter Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012, in Spokane.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
A zinnia bloom fades in a flower garden next to Canon Hill Park, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016. I sometimes like to add strobe lighting to everyday scenes. Using an off-camera strobe to light this fading blooms really brought out the colors and made photo, a least to me, look like a painting.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
A raindrop strikes a puddle on E. Fifth Ave in East Central, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
Forming a necklace between branches of a spruce tree, Ice hangs on a single tread of spider's silk, Friday, Dec. 26, 2014, on Spokane's South Hill.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
After lunch is a time Ashley and Nick can spend a precious few moments with each other. Though, showing signs of too much affection is against the rules, some students find out of the way places like behind the gym to steal a few kisses before heading back to class. One of my favorite picture stories I produced for the newspaper was, “Days of Discovery” - a year-long look at one girls journey through seventh grade. Some of the early ideas for this story was to embed a reporter and photographer at a Spokane middle school and tell the story of the school year. I thought that idea was too broad. Instead, reporter Jeanette White and I pitched to editors that we should follow one student and tell their story. To find the right person, we went to the Salk Middle School seventh grade orientation. As I walked into the cafeteria filled with fresh young faces, I was drawn to Ashley Muzatko, age 12, who was sitting with her dad. She had a smile full of braces and her hair tied into two buns on the sides of her head like Princess Leia. After chatting with her, I knew she would be the one. I just had to cut the deal. “Ashley, I need to be able to photograph your good days and bad days at school. Are you willing to give me access when you are crying over breaking up with your boyfriend?” “Yes I will,” she declared.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
My wife Kim and I were out for a walk in March of 1991 when we came across this scene. Susan Schnebele and Davin Henrikson, bride and groom, lead the cheers Sunday as Don Henrikson, the groom's brother, with the use of a scuba mask, retrieves Davin's wedding ring from the pond at Manito Park's Japanese Gardens. The groom said his bride was reaching to place the ring on his finger during their wedding ceremony when it fell, hit the railing and disappeared into the murky water--for about 30 minutes.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Spokane Fire Department firefighter Capt. Mike Rose collapses from a seizure during a public memorial service for fellow firefighter John Knighten who died on June 30, 2013, from a work-related cancer. Rose was part of an honor guard tasked with removing KnightenÕs casket from the back of a fire engine parked outside the at the Spokane Convention Center, July 8, 2013. Paramedics and emergency medical technicians who were attending the service quickly came to the aid of the veteran firefighter. Rose, who had suffered two previous heart attacks in his career.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
As a small boy hurriedly ate a banana, another older emaciated boy, holding on to his underpants to keep them from falling off his boney hips, shoved his other hand wrist-deep into the smaller child’s mouth. He scooped the chewed banana out and ate it. I missed the shot. Mostly because it was so shocking that I did not believe what I just witnessed. I turned to Julie and our eyes met, then we realized the small child had taken another bite and the scene was starting to repeat itself. As I dropped to one knee, Julie started to move to stop it. I quickly said “No Julie!” She froze and a split second later I made this horrific photo. We quickly grabbed the small child and moved him away from the larger boy. Sitting on a bench, we fed him as many bananas as he could eat.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
We gave the gorilla some space and he settled down and resumed stripping leaves from branches with his teeth. After making some pictures of him I realized there were other gorillas around us. Looking up, I spotted a young gorilla above me. He looked at me and beat his chest like Tarzan and I snapped the above photo. A couple of days later, I was in a market in the town of Goma when a young man approached me holding something wrapped in bananas leaves. He let it unfold and said: "souvenir ashtray" I could barely process what I was looking at - A severed gorilla hand. Repulsed, I pushed him away from me. It wasn't until I came home to the states and printed the picture of the young gorilla in the tree that I realized the arm he was beating his chest with was missing a hand. I often wonder, with all the war in that region of Africa, how many of the mountain gorillas of Zaire have survived.
A mute swan with it wings raised, cruises through the icy waters of Manito Park's Mirror pond in Spokane, Wash in 2004. At this time, Four mute swans shared the pond with hundreds of mallard ducks, which forced them to become more territorial as mating season approached. By 2006, the swans were gone after meeting violent deaths. They were never replaced.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
Several dozen great blue herons perch on pilings in the Pend Oreille River at Usk, Wash Tue., March 2, 2010. Area birding enthusiasts said this is the time of year large groups of the giant birds can be seen migrating and resting in certain areas, such as the Pack River Delta along Lake Pend Oreille. Soon they will disperse in smaller groups to nesting rookeries in cottonwoods or other woodlands near water.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
During the Big Bend Rodeo Company and the Flying Five's spring roundup, two horses, raised as bucking stock, play fight in a pasture near Dusty, Washington in 2002. The Eastern Washington rodeo company is becoming well known for it championship winning bucking stock of horses and bulls used in rodeos throughout western U.S. and Canada.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
After using elephant power to raise the big top, Carson & Barnes elephant handler Jason King, joins his pachyderms for a cool drink of water, in July of 1995. The five-ring circus featured 17 elephants, a rhino and tigers. Set-up at Broadway Avenue and Sullivan Street, the Carson Barnes Circus ranks among the worlds largest tent circuses.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
in 1984, a young man had stolen a car and rammed it into a fire hydrant underneath the Maple Street Bridge. The water pressure held the car's backend up perfectly in the air. As I was taking pictures of scene, Spokane Fire Department firefighter Steve Davis walked over and jokingly held up the car for the crowd gathered. After it ran in The Spokesman-Review, the National Enquirer purchased it for 150 bucks. Score! My first an only Enquirer snap. When the water was turned off, the car came crashing down.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
After her quinceanera ceremony in a Pasco church, Ana Chacon, 15, tries to gather up her dress before heading to her party at the local Masonic temple. There, making her first tentative steps to adulthood, she was allowed to dance with boys for the first time.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
On his 40-acre retreat he calls "The Edge of the World", Afri-I takes a heated bath in an old clawfoot bathtub. In 1995, I was part of of team of newsroom photographers and reporters who worked on a special project called “The Ragged Edge of Democracy.” It was a chaotic time in the country after Ruby Ridge and Waco, where the fringes of our society were fearful that the government was coming for them and their guns. One of my stories to illustrate was about a man named Afiri-I, who cut up his Social Security card years before and now lived a frugal existence on the side of a mountain in Stevens County. One visit to his property, I spotted an old bathtub in a meadow. “Hey Afri-I, I said. Do you take a bath in that old tub?” “All the time” he replied. “When your next one,” I inquired “Tuesday,” he said. I took a deep breath, and asked if I could photograph him as he bathed. “Sure, I don’t mind,” he said A few days later, I was back ready to make my photograph of Afiri-I in the old tub. But first he needed to make some preparations. You see, this was a heated bathtub. Afiri-I gathered some wood and started a fire under the tub. Then he hauled buckets of water and poured them in. As steam started to rise from the water, Afiri-I stripped downed got in the tub. He parked his bum on an over-turned cook pot so as not to burn himself from the heat of the fire underneath the tub. I started to make photos and and then something unexpected happen. Afiri-I raised one leg and started to scrub it with a loofa sponge on a stick. Bingo. I knew I had made a memorable photo. I’ve had a framed poster-sized print of this photo hanging in my bathroom for years.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo