To create truly great portrait photography—freezing a single moment that best captures and flatters a subject—requires a thorough and even intuitive mastery of light. So believes Clair Peterson, who was the 2010 recipient of the Minnesota Professional Photographers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.
“You need to read lighting correctly, exploiting its nuances in color, value and shadows to accurately transmit what you see,” he says.
With a career that spans 65 years, Peterson knows that of which he speaks. Perspective, eye contact and composition all contribute to a quality finished product, he says, but it’s the use of light as an art form that sets a striking portrait apart.
Peterson first shot photos—with a 1937-38 model Brownie that he purchased for $1—for his high school yearbook. After graduating from Cokato High School in 1938, Peterson took an introductory photography course at Gustavus Adolphus College. When dwindling finances prevented him from continuing at Gustavus during the Depression, Peterson moved to Minneapolis where his godfather helped him complete several fine art photography classes at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
“I learned to critically view what I produced and constantly improve,” he says. “And I found that photographing people offered an opportunity to be creative. It’s very satisfying to transmit someone’s true nature to a finished product.”
Peterson’s first photography job was with Halmrast Studio in 1946. Three years later, his colleague Gordon Haga launched a studio and asked Peterson to join him as a silent partner. Peterson agreed and the two worked together for a decade before Peterson formed his own studio in 1959.
Peterson earned his master's degree of photography from the Professional Photographers of America Association in 1963, and a year later served as the organization’s president.
Peterson built his business by taking hundreds of wedding, special occasion, family and senior photographs. Through three generations and significant technical innovations (Peterson originally worked with incandescent light and 5x7 black-and-white sheet film before switching to black-and-white and then color roll film and eventually digital imaging), he perfected his craft, developing an expertise and reputation that led to portrait requests from notable Minnesotans including governors, professional athletes, musicians, religious dignitaries, media personalities, business owners and even a pageant queen.
“Not many people leave a record of their work behind like Clair will,” notes Studio Manager Deanne Beaudet who has worked with Peterson for 12 years. “He has a remarkable ability to make people feel like family, and his former clients often comment fondly about how Clair took their senior or wedding pictures. There are homes all over the area that contain portraits by Clair.”
Peterson’s youngest son Tim joined the studio full time in 1974 after graduating with a fine arts degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He respects how his father grew a successful family business, particularly in such a competitive industry.
The man who built the studio not only is a consummate professional, but is also a lively and engaged figure in the local community.
“He is a such a goer,” Tim says of his dad. “Every morning he drives to 50th Street Cafe to meet with other 50th and France business owners. They call themselves the Round Table of Wisdom and like to solve the world’s problems. Then he comes into the studio before heading back to Pearson’s for soup. After lunch he runs errands, usually visiting the bank and Walgreens, and then to Breadsmith to pick up a cranberry scone for my mom before calling it a day. On Thursdays, when the studio is open late, the two of us have dinner together.”
Tami Roloff, Pearson’s day manager, says that Peterson arrives by 8:30 a.m. almost daily. “He always has a smile and a cheerful greeting. He just brightens my day.”
Peterson lives in south Minneapolis with his wife Kakie in the house they built in 1967. They have two sons, seven grandchildren and one great grandchild on the way.
Still passionate about photography and committed to the studio he founded more than a half century ago, Peterson visits it nearly every day, Monday through Saturday, to advise and review each image produced by the lab. At age 90, he has no intention of slowing down.
“I think I still have something to contribute,” says Peterson. “I’ll let my health determine if I ever retire.”
