Chase Galley features 40-plus years of Rick Singer’s photographs in retrospective display

It’s possible that no one knows Spokane – the people and places that make up the city – quite like photographer Rick Singer.

His retrospective show, on display at the Chase Gallery through Oct. 25, features images he’s taken of Sister Paula Turnbull, artists like Rubén Trejo and George Flett, luthier Eric Sahlin, calligraphy instructor Lars Neises, arts patron Elizabeth Welty, newscasters from a variety of local stations and singer Julia Keefe, as well as young children, high school seniors, families and couples on their wedding day. There are also images of employees at local businesses like Vic’s, Columbia Pharmacy and Stan’s Coney Island, all of which have since closed.

Singer can tell you everyone’s name and story, a little detail about their life. By capturing and celebrating these moments in time, however trivial, he gives them weight, making them part of the history of Spokane.

Born and raised in Spokane, Singer himself has been part of that history since even before he picked up his first camera, an Argus C-3, at age 8.

Singer’s maternal grandfather Melvin Duitch opened Dutch Jewelry and Loan in downtown Spokane in 1915, having emigrated to America from Russia in 1908. Singer’s father took over the shop in the 1960s, and Singer and his older brothers Gary and Allen all worked at the shop from a young age.

After graduating from Lewis and Clark High School, Singer attended the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. Returning to Spokane after graduation, Singer set up shop above Dutch’s in 1981.

From the very beginning, Singer was drawn to portrait photography. By his estimate, he’s photographed more than 1,000 weddings and tens of thousands of high school seniors, families, children, business portraits and passport photos. He’s also restored countless historic photographs.

“I’ve always related well to people, because I grew up in the business working retail,” he said. “It just came naturally to me.”

People were drawn to Singer from the get-go. After returning from Brooks and creating his studio space, Singer attended a downtown street fair. He didn’t have a lot of examples of his work at the time, but he hung up what he had.

There, he met a man who handled accounts for auto dealers around the country. The man hired Singer to take photos of the customers of local dealerships.

“It paid $200 a month, and I thought I was in fat city,” he said. “Money was worth more then, it was in the early ‘80s. I was like ‘Hey, maybe this will work after all.”

In short, everything did work out. People Singer grew up with would hire him to take photos of themselves or their children. He would then hang those photos at other street fairs, where passersby would recognize someone in an image and want a photo of themselves.

A vast majority of these portraits feature Singer’s signature use of the natural light that streamed into his studio’s windows. The peeling wallpaper from the former hotel space above Dutch’s also became a constant in his work, adding texture and depth to each image, no matter who was being photographed.

When photographing people, Singer focuses on complementary portraiture, analyzing the subject’s facial features to figure out the best pose and camera angles needed to make a shot he and the subject would like.

We see ourselves as reversed images in mirrors, Singer said, so sometimes people didn’t like the way they appeared in photographs, but his focus on finding the right lighting and camera angles kept those instances to a minimum.

Singer said he was one of the last photographers in town to go digital because he loved shooting on film and working in a dark room. During his 25 years teaching at Spokane Art School, Singer led students in dark room classes, developing film and making prints.

There are benefits to shooting digitally though. He likes that he can take a photo then immediately share it with the subject for direct feedback. It’s also easier to retouch photos.

“Before you would retouch on the negative, where the head size might be the size of a dime, and you’re going in, under high magnification, with pencil lead, trying to correct things …” Singer said. “Now you have a head that’s a foot big. With digital, I can do a much better job of retouching, and the final product definitely looks better.”

When Singer was accepted for a retrospective exhibit at the Chase Gallery, he was faced with the daunting task of selecting the photos that would represent his career. He chose examples of his early work, including a photo that won him a Scholastic award at age 17 and a photo of a beloved neighbor named Marguerite, as well as photos from collections he created to document local artists and musicians, included as a thank you to Spokane for the years of support. There are also images from Spokane Women Together, a collection which celebrated the diversity of women in Spokane.

There are also photos of people who have passed away that Singer wanted to honor by including them in the gallery.

Last October, Singer moved out of his studio above the former Dutch’s, which closed in 2013 after 98 years in business. Before he left, he documented various elements of the space, from pieces of the linoleum to notes about hotel room payment written on the walls. Those photos are included in the exhibit too.

Even with 43 years worth of images, Singer still wishes he photographed more, especially when he was starting his business. The “old codgers” he’d see walking down the street every day, the independent businesses that have since closed.

“I’m sorry I didn’t take pictures of them,” he said.

But looking at the photos he did take, the important memories he did capture, Singer said he’s honored that people trusted him to do a good job for them.

Over the course of his career, Singer has not only seen Spokane change but also the medium of photography evolve, from his Argus C-3 to the dark room to his cell phone camera. No matter the format, Singer hopes people can take an extra moment to appreciate photos that grab their attention in a world that bombards us with images.

“You see so many pictures, probably more than you ever have before,” he said. “Hopefully there’s something that makes you stop and learn something, you know, see what’s there.”