A Romance with Photography

“I tried to sell them, but I learned only an idiot buys lenses without a camera,” he said. “I saved up and purchased a matching Olympus OM-PC SLR at a camera shop in the city. I ran a test roll through it and instantly fell in love. I never sold the camera.”  

Thus began Knight’s lifelong devotion to a career in photography, specifically, fine arts photography rendered with large-format, 8 x 10 view cameras and medium format film cameras.

Describing it as a “love-hate relationship with photography,” images fill his head throughout the day, through bedtime and beyond. He awakes every morning with images on his mind. “I am not sure if it is a curse or a blessing, but I thank Mother Nature every day for all her splendor, showing me her best to photograph,” he said.

July 4 marked the Shane Knight Gallery’s 18th anniversary in downtown Flagstaff and 37 years of photography for him. “My first location was on Route 66, currently known as Mountain Top Tap Room,” he said. “We moved over to Aspen six years later, and again a couple of years ago to our current location at 11 East Aspen.” 

 Knight, who was born in Hays, Kansas, in 1973, was legally deaf as a young child, which was a factor in drawing him to photography at an early age. “After several operations, my hearing was restored. However, it severely placed me behind in my early development in speech and comprehension.” 

After years of special education and speech therapy, he started to engage more with people when he was a senior in high school. “Before, photography was my ‘in’ with social groups and parties. ‘Shane doesn’t say much but man, he takes good pics,’ people would say. I would comfortably hide behind the camera – it was my form of communication.”

After high school, he spent many years traveling and working a variety of jobs, taking pictures and even wrangling horses. While working for a professional lab, he gained experience printing for professional photographers across the United States, Canada and Mexico. He had the opportunity to “work with beautifully and well-done negatives” from professionals.

“After a while, I became accustomed to quality; however, occasionally, I would see one that stood out more than the others. I remembered how it made me feel when I worked with a negative that stood out from all the other ones. I applied those high standards to how I wanted people to see my work.”

Later, he learned the art of communication and photography of Ansel Adams and found his work very inspirational. These early experiences culminated in his relocation to Arizona in the late ‘90s. He worked on a ranch east of Phoenix in the

Tonto National Forest, which is where he met his wife, Heather. She was earning her master’s in special education from the University of Arizona. 

“We moved to Flagstaff in 2003, primarily to work with Stephen Saunders and the late Corey Allen, who owned the photo lab Hidden Light at the time.”

The couple’s son, Austin, was born in Flagstaff 2007. “There is nothing I love more than the art of photography, except my family and the loves of my life, Heather and Austin,” he said.                                                                                                                                             

Knight found the Flagstaff community very supportive of the arts, which encouraged the creativity of professional photographers. He was particularly appreciative of the resources at Hidden Light, such as the lab being one of the “very rare, high-quality Ilfochrome/Cibachrome and B/W Silver Gelatin labs in the United States,” he said. 

“After moving here, I soon realized Flagstaff might be a great spot to open a brick-and-mortar gallery.” Before the gallery, he was participating in art shows across the country. 

Famous for his Western landscapes, the spacious 1,800-square-foot gallery has worked well for displaying his photographs. “We gave it a facelift with wooden floors and added a wainscoting completely made of local ponderosa pine. I try to make the gallery as warm as possible and pleasing to the eyes.”

The couple recently opened a picture frame shop, Mountaintop Frame Shop, on the east side of town. “A lot of people were coming in commenting on the quality of my framing. So instead of sending them elsewhere, we opened the framing to the public with great success!”

In addition, Knight joined the Flagstaff Downtown Business Alliance (FDBA), the nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of historic downtown Flagstaff, including its businesses. “Since we are all in the same boat, we do look out for each other.”

Knight credits “a great staff of sales associates and framers,” for the success of his business ventures. “I wouldn’t be anywhere today without them,” he said.

“I believe the most exciting moment of being a photographer is that every great shot is on the edge of disaster. So many things can go wrong and most of the time it doesn’t work out. However, every once in a while, it all comes together. If I could use one word to describe the process of working with large cameras, working with film, processing in the darkroom, waiting for the perfect moment and seeing it all in a frame on the wall, it’s ‘romantic.’” FBN

By Betsey Bruner, FBN

Photo by Betsey Bruner: Deaf as a child, photography gave Shane Knight a voice and a way to communicate.