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Forget the usual adjectives. When it comes to Gary Parker and his unique brand of photography, you need a whole new lexicon. In fact, forget words. Begin with this: picture what an 8-year-old boy would do with a camera if he had 25 years experience winning awards in advertising, corporate and photojournalistic photography, could light anything large or small and could read the minds of dogs and, go figure, even cats. Oh yeah, and inject an enthusiastic natural energy much like that of a very active 8 year old boy... One can safely say no one sees the world quite the way Gary does. He's a kid at heart with a very adult competitive edge - born probably of his early years as a record-setting athlete - who somehow manages to balance a precise intellect with a seemingly reckless emotional abandon.
Owing to his background as an award-winning photojournalist, Gary has shot everything conceivable under every imaginable circumstance. He thrives on deadlines, quick-turnarounds and is known for his creative location-lighting solutions. And he's versatile, equally comfortable chatting it up with a herd of cows as chewing the cud with Bill Gates, be it in studio or on location. In a word, he's a pro. Or, as one NY ad agency creative director recently put it, "Gary Parker is the real deal."
Gary learned the real deal while in the trenches working for a half-dozen newspapers and magazines. From his earliest years, when he was named Southern Photographer of the Year and twice National Newspaper Photographer of the Year, Gary has been known as a gung-ho, get-it-done, inspirational artist and teacher who shoots as much for fun as for the challenge of eliciting and capturing an emotional response.
Gary's hallmark is in getting to the soul of his subjects. No one's quite sure how he manages, but Gary elicits from his subjects - human adult, child, animal, four-legged or two-toed - the part of themselves most of us try to hide - the spirit within. Gary figures it's his energy. Or his spontaneity. Or his willingness to do just about anything to get a truly "real" emotional response. All likely stories from a guy who hasn't a clue what others sense immediately. What Gary has to spare is contagious energy and power - the unique, indescribable ability to make people want to please him.
An observer once noted when Gary walks into the room, the air shifts. His energy is immediately palpable, fundamentally irresistible, and ultimately contagious. Children, animals and "real people" - his favorite subjects - respond to him in ways which often evokes marvel from the creative people for whom Gary and his team resolve visual problems. Even his adult subjects often find the child within when Gary aims his lens.