That was 1983. Clients since then have included Business Week, Forbes, Time — “virtually all of the magazines,” he said. He has also worked for Dayton Power & Light, NCR, General Electric, Procter & Gamble and many others. When clients needed a Midwestern photographer, Snow often got the call.
“I was kind of the guy in Ohio,” he said.
Snow describes himself as a “documentarian at heart,” and that comes through in his compilation pairing vivid photos of locales just after the Great Flood of 1913 with identical sites today, a work he calls “Watershed, Then & Now.”
That project — some of which can be seen at AndySnow.com — won a “Best of 2013” nod by the American Society of Media Photographers. But Snow has also been involved in dozens of other projects, including directing photography for the video of the Dayton-centric flagwaver “Where the Rivers Meet.” (If you haven’t seen that music video, check it out on You Tube right now. We’ll wait.)
We sat down with Snow at his Cooper Lofts condo recently to talk about what kept him anchored to the camera and anchored to the Gem City. This is an edited, condensed transcript.
Q: What inspired you to get started as a commercial photographer?
Snow: "I started working for Dayton Power & Light, starting in 1983, really when I just put out the shingle and said, 'I'm 33 years old. I'll spend the rest of my life wondering, what if I don't try this now?'
“First my wife and I were in retail and wholesale. We made a little money, and I starting doing more and more photography again. I had started in college and graduate school. I came to Dayton to write radio and television ads for an agency, for Rike’s department store, which is where the Schuster Center is now …
“Actually when I was 14, I was a Boy Scout, and I went with a Brownie camera that I still have to Valley Forge (Pa.) for the (Scouts’) Jamboree, 50,000 Boy Scouts, no showers, in the middle of summer … in that trip, I took the Brownie and I took the pictures.”
Q: How did the music video “Where the Rivers Meet” come together? What was your role?
Snow: "I was the photography director. I was brought into the project. They did one last year by Playing for Change. It featured artists, dancers and musicians. It's called 'Where There is Love.' You can find that on You Tube. Those were (Dayton-area musicians and producers) Michael and Sandy Bashaw and (local filmmaker) David Sherman.
“Michael and Sandy Bashaw are part of (Dayton-based musical group) Puzzle of Light. David Sherman worked for Muse Machine for years and did some film work at Wright State, and he produced and directed that first video. They did a … fundraiser and in three days raised the money to go ahead and do the new one, ‘Where the Rivers Meet.’
“They just reached out to me and said, ‘Can you help us? We know you have good equipment. And you have the eye we want.’”
Q: We’re sitting in Cooper Lofts. When you first looked at living here, did you examine it with a photographer’s eye?
Snow: "I don't have any other way to look at it. It had the high ceiling. I have the light from the windows if I need it. I can shut it (the windows) down with the drapes and the blinds if I need to. Of course, the strobe lights are far more powerful anyway. They would wipe out any other ambient light …
“It’s just the perfect space. My kids are grown. Now, I love having my grandboys here. I have two little grandboys, and they love coming to grandpa’s house. It’s just like a big floor.
“I’m a real techno-geek. Wait till you see the man cave. The real studio is the computer room.”
Know someone who can handle Three Questions? We're looking for behind-the-scenes-but-still fascinating Miami Valley residents with something to say. Send your suggestions to tom.gnau@coxinc.com.
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