The Susan Parish Collection of Photography

Shadow Catchers' celebrates the Legacy of Pacific Northwest Photographers of the

Historic and Modern Era

by offering

Exclusive Catalogs of their Art

Home of the prestigious

Jeffers Studio Collection

Joseph Jeffers (1882  ~ 1924)                                 Vibert Jeffers, (1905 - 1975)

THE SHADOW CATCHERS

Susan's Statement

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SUSAN'S BLOG 

"JOURNEY'S OF A SHADOW CATCHER"

All Blogs and links are offline while being edited

for print publication and will be back online soon.

Part 1 - Little Hollywood

Part 2 - Tom Boy in Tumwater

Part 3 -Love in the Dark or Olympic Peninsula's Mushrooms are making me See Things!

Part 4 - Janis Joplin

Part 5 - Darkroom in a Closet at OVTI

Part 6 - Humanities and Oral History

Part 7 - Photographs, The Healing Arts & Memory

Part 8 - Photo-Journalism: On The Road

Part 9 - Newspaper Woman - The Olympia News Years with George Warren and Gordon Newell

Part 10 - Portraits of Politics -  At the Capitol

Part 11 -Models Are Easier

Part 12 - Julia Butler Hansen and the Early Women of Washington Politics

Part 13 - A Basement Full of Photos

Part 14 - What Have I Gotten Into?

Part 15 - A Darkroom Ghost

Part 16 - More Ghosts

Part 17 - Shadow Catchers

Part 18 - Raymond Burr and Vibert in Fiji

Part 19 - Where is He?

Part 20 - Joe Jeffers, Jr. Tests Me

Part 21 - Are all these People Still Here?

Part 22 - Mary Mires Glass Plates

Part 23 - Mary's Native Americans

Part 24 - More Ghosts

Part 25 - They Just Don't Like Shadow Catchers

A Private Photograph Archives ~ Est. 1982

Susan Parish at Light Table with an 8 x 10 negative by Vibert Jeffers of Jeffers Studio. Photo by Carl Cook 1984.

The SPC is a privately owned photographic archives containing thousands of original negatives and images dating back to the 1860's.   Ms. Parish, a native of Washington State, began making and collecting photographs as a child in the 1950's.

The SPC encompasses the full spectrum of the photographic medium to date, as well as materials and documents related to the history and process of this art and visual communication form as an important adjunct to its holdings. This reflects Parish's curatorial tenet that "photographic objects are invaluable to the study of the environmental and cultural history and must be preserved”.

The SPC documents the natural and cultural landscape and traces the entire history of photography including its aesthetic movements and technological advancements. Processes from Daguerreotypes, salt prints, Woodbury types, albumen prints, ambrotypes, tintypes, film and contemporary processes of analog and digital photography are represented.  Contemporary color and Black & White photographs, negatives and transparencies—along with a selection of videotapes and films are held in the collection.

The SPC reflects the central role photography plays in our image-based culture as a communication tool, an expressive medium and as documentary records.

Although the backdrop of most images in the SPC are Washington State, there are photographs and their negatives from 23 other states in the union and over 35 other countries. Included are fine photographs of Alaska, including the Gold Rush, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, California and Africa, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Tahiti, France, Italy and Spain.

And, while the entire collection illustrates the complex and varied history of the medium, its major areas of strength are time period of 1914 - 1970 and in social and environmental documentary photography.

Included:  Early 20th century works in city and landscape, documentary and modern mid-century works of pre and post-World War II constitute the strongest areas of the collection.

Subject Matter is extensive ~ with the common themes associated with early development of the Pacific Northwest and its natural and cultural landscape well represented; i.e. pristine landscapes showing old growth forests and logging, railroading,  seascapes and soaring mountains, steam ships and tug boats, dusty main streets of emerging cities, portraits of indigenous Native American and multi-cultural pioneers, recreational activities such as skiing, hiking, fishing, hunting, as well as many historical events of national note.

Contact The Susan Parish Collection