DOCUMENTING LIFE THROUGH THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY
by Jennifer Recktenwald
Patrick Pfister '76A began his career in photography while working on a degree in psychology. He learned the tricks of the trade on still camera equipment borrowed from Ekstrom Library, where he was working at the time, then began taking assignments from The Louisville Times and The Courier-Journal.

By 1980, Pfister had his own studio and migrated to projects for advertising agencies and public relations firms. His clients include Jewish and Caritas hospitals, Philip Morris USA, and WAVE-TV. Pfister has also contributed shots to national trade journals, and his photography of church architecture appears in the Roman Catholic Church calendar, produced by Diocesan Publications. He has also photographed famous faces such as General Norman Schwarzkopf, Mother Teresa, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan.

More recently, Pfister began advertising his services on the World Wide Web, at his pfoto.com site. Customers can browse an on-line catalog of stock photography and call Pfister to negotiate a fee. He then sends them a high-resolution scan of the image. The site includes 700 images, mostly Pfister's own, for sale.

"It's very good for business," he says. "I've had relationships with other stock photo agencies but they take so much of a percentage. I thought, 'Why not eliminate the middle man?' There's ready access."

Because of his long-standing relationship with Jewish Hospital, Pfister was asked to photograph the state's first heart transplant, performed at Jewish by U of L surgeon Laman Gray in 1984.

Pfister also photographed the nation's first hand transplant, which a team of surgeons from U of L and Jewish Hospital's Kleinert, Kutz and Associates Hand Center performed January 24 of this year.

Pfister says his success comes from the support of his wife, interior designer Barbara Pfister '93A, and the freedom his clients have allowed him.

"People depend on you to visually get their message out, but they have to trust the photographer," Pfister says. "There's a lot of autonomy. That's why I've always enjoyed what I do."

Pfister recalls his assignment to photograph the state's first heart transplant as a defining moment of his career. "When they opened up that cooler and placed the heart in the chest cavity, it was very dramatic. Hours and days later, I thought, 'I can't believe I was there.'" Pfister says he feels lucky to have been chosen. "I was the only photographer in there‹ there was no competition. I knew when the photos were published that they were going to have tremendous impact."