Rangefinder Magazine
January 2006

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Parker Pfister Harvey Goldstein
Meets the Dark City

Buddy, the begging dog, sat on his stage and shivered in the cold January breeze	as his master huddled in a doorway away from the elements.

Parker Pfister, a wedding photographer in Hillsboro, Ohio, first picked up a camera at the age of 11, and he has been making images ever since. His father, PJ, was a photographer who taught him the basic science and mechanics and let him loose to find his own interpretations of light. There are many definitions of photography; Parker’s definition is to tell a story with one photograph.

The man rolling the cigarette acted as if he were the only person on the street, even though Parker was only three feet from him.

Living in Oregon for 12 years, Parker developed a passion for landscape photography. Studying the grasslands and the form of the Pacific Northwest helped him appreciate composition and seeing natural light. The knowledge of light and composition he gained while in Oregon helped him when he began photographing weddings five years ago. Although he still has that same passion for landscape photography, he has an added passion for wedding photography. “I see wedding photography as two souls shimmering in my viewfinder. I create with their energy. I bounce off of their individuality. I give my imagery their personality.” The passion that Parker has for landscapes and weddings extends to all types of photography. He proves this with his recent foray into street photography.

All Photograp hs copyright © Parker Pfister

Parker visited New Orleans in January 2005 with some friends. With only a few hours to roam the streets with his camera, he produced haunting images that may be regarded as the great turning point in his career. “I felt the composition of my landscapes and the emotion and storytelling of my weddings converging in one of the darkest cities I have ever visited.”

The inspiration for Parker’s New Orleans photographs came from a very unlikely source, Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume 2. Parker was taken with the black-and-white sequences in the movie that were devoid of detail in the shadows and with the highlights gone as well. He felt that the very high-contrast look Tarantino gave the movie would be the perfect recipe for his New Orleans images.

All Photograp hs copyright © Parker Pfister

Parker created his images with only available light and a Canon 1D Mark II. His lens of choice was a Canon 24–70mm f/2.8L IS. He also used the Canon 70–200mm f/2.8L IS and the 17–35mm f/2.8L IS. The speed of these lenses and the high ISO of the camera gave him the opportunity to use very muted available light. Everything was captured in RAW mode and converted in Phase One C1 Pro. This allowed him to retrieve as much information as possible. Parker feels that the combination of the Mark II in RAW mode and the extremely sharp Canon optics give depth and realness to the images.

All Photograp hs copyright © Parker Pfister

After the photography was completed, he turned to Photoshop. He worked in layers with different level adjustments, one for highlights, one for midtones and one for shadows. In addition, he also added layers for no detail shadows and no detail highlights. This reflected the mood he felt when he snapped the shutter. If there was to be color in the photograph, it had to be a very muted color. His goal was to give these photographs personality; he wanted to show the dark side of life.

All Photograp hs copyright © Parker Pfister

“Streetscapes—you can’t pose this stuff. This is real life. And now this will teach me something I can use when I photograph weddings or landscapes. It all comes full circle,” says Parker Pfister.