THIS WHOLE PHOTOGRAPHY THING started in 1972 when I was 11 years old and my mom handed me a KODAK INSTAMATIC to shoot pelicans flapping overhead in Cortez, Florida.
I elevated my game somewhat when my big brother Phil gave me a Pentax K1000 35mm Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera when I graduated high school. For a year I’d resisted accepting his gift, but I finally relented. Phil’s generosity meant I had the gear to realize the creative vision an INSTAMATIC just wouldn’t allow.
In 1978, I was tapped as a finalist in the Kodak International Newspaper Snapshot Awards on the strength of KINSA Entry No. 578, “Decayed Wooden Boat.” I went on to study fine arts in college, was a retoucher at Paul Bartley Photography, and worked in commercial camera shops while capturing sports, events, and portraits on the side.
To me, photography has always been about the power to effect change: to advance an agenda, spotlight a political issue, influence a purchase, open hearts, illuminate a story. Pictures tell stories as surely as words do. History, after all, is filled with images we can’t unsee: “Afghan Girl” Sharbat Gula on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic (Steve McCurry), “Napalm Girl” Phan Thi Kim Phuc on 8 June 1972 (Nick Ut), U.S. Army soldier Huston Riley awash in the D-Day surf on 6 June 1944 (Robert Capa). For better or worse, these images sear themselves into our collective memory. As a photographer, my goal is to allow all that lies beneath the surface of a competition, a controversy or a human face, whether backstage or center stage, to reveal itself.
As a photographer, I train an eye toward rendering the ordinary extraordinary. I offer behind-the-scenes, documentary, event, portrait, sports, and street photography. I’m also available to photograph select liberal political groups and candidates. With cinematic composition and journalistic candor as my guides, I’m poised for local, regional, and national assignments.
My rates, references, and resume are available upon request.
TONY HACK
Principal
Tony Hack Photography
info@tonyhack.com (e)
202.222.8745 (m)
www.tonyhack.com (w)