Just about everyone in Spartanburg has seen the works of award-winning Upstate photographer Gerry Pate, whether they realize it or not. Pate’s 40-year career as photojournalist will be exhibited Feb. 3 through 28 in “In His Element: The Life Works of Photojournalist Gerry Pate: A Retrospective” in Gallery III of the Artists Collective | Spartanburg.
An artist’s reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, as part of Spartanburg ArtWalk. The reception and exhibition viewing are free and open to the public. Sixty Pate works will be on exhibit.
Pate, a native of Florence, SC, spent 35 years working for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, chronicling the happenings in the city and throughout the county before his retirement in 2015. He started his career in Myrtle Beach at the Sun News, then moved to the Upstate to work at the Union Daily Times before relocating to Spartanburg where he met his wife, Anne, who was the Herald-Journal news librarian.
The exhibition is a compilation of his works through four decades.
“We hope this exhibit will help the public learn more about Spartanburg, see people they recognize in the photos, and understand the difference between photojournalism versus general photography,” Pate says, adding that his children and other family members wanted him to have an exhibit to showcase his work after retirement. “They believed it would be a shame to keep all these photos and stories in boxes.”
The exhibit includes “a little bit of everything you’d see in the newspaper – spot news, general news, sports and sports features/action, features around Spartanburg, and illustrations,” he explains. “We hope that people will learn more about Spartanburg’s history through the lens of photojournalism and that viewers are moved by what they see, whether it’s joy, sadness, fear or inspiration.”
Pate says people most often ask about his works, “How did you get that photo?”
“You can’t ethically set up a candid photo,” he says. “If you do that, it’s called an illustration or portrait. This isn’t well understood because people can create any photo they want now. The authenticity of photojournalism makes it special.” He adds that spot news photos are spontaneous.
“I love what I did as a photojournalist,” he continues, “but I’m still a photographer at heart. Creating the shots with my camera was intuitive to me. I became part of the camera. When I was on assignment, the camera was in my hand at the ready so I could capture the moment. I think I helped people, too. It was exciting to know they’d be drinking their coffee and looking at my photo in the newspaper first thing in the morning. It was especially exciting to know that the people I got photos of would be seeing their faces in the paper and how happy they would be.
“Even on the bulletin boards at the schools, I’d see clippings of newspaper photos with my name on them,” he continues. “I also think my work helped people. For instance, before using seatbelts became law, I made everyone in my family buckle up after covering a car wreck. I felt the pictures were showing everyone what could happen. I feel that I really educated and inspired people. Now, I love taking beautiful pictures, too, and I hope I inspired people to do fun things like go to a concert or go to the lake.”
In addition to his photojournalism, as a freelance contractor for events, news, performances, portraiture and more, Pate has drawn on the reflexes of his photojournalistic experience to deliver candid and spontaneous imagery to clients with a variety of needs.
One of Pate’s brothers, who also became a well-known artist, gave him his first camera when he was in his teens. He began taking pictures for himself and his family with that 35 mm camera. His first newspaper photo ran in the Sun News in Myrtle Beach in 1980. It was a picture of a flamingo sculpture at a mini-golf course covered in snow and ice that secured his position at the paper after all the photographers opted out of working that day due to a snowstorm. Pate walked five miles and hitchhiked for the rest of the trip to make it to the coastline to get the shot.
Pate attended what he likes to call “The School of Hard Knocks.” While he did not attend college, he furthered his education through courses and seminars on photography and photojournalism in Charlotte, Atlanta, Charleston and Greenville, and he took classes at Coastal Carolina. He learned how to do everything on the job.
“My whole family is in art, whether it’s painting, sculpture, photography, woodworking or stained glass. So, it’s been something I grew up around,” Pate says. “Even my grandmother was an incredible oil painter but stopped after she had her eight children. I feel I passed this creative, artistic energy down to my children. Just putting this exhibit together and curating photos with my son has been worthwhile, but it will be incredible to show my work in an exhibit for the first time in my life.
“I’m very excited about exhibiting at the Artists Collective | Spartanburg,” he adds. “I’ve come to love the Artists Collective. I recommend it to everyone. I like seeing the ACS, which has such a great purpose, using a historical building instead of being torn down. It’s wonderful for there to be a place for artists to display their work. It’s a fun and an incredible creative space.”
For more about Gerry Pate and to see more of his photographs, go to GerryPatePhoto.com.