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Home → Interviews

Jack Dykinga Interview: From Pulitzer-Winner to Landscape Photography Legend

By John Sherman 38 Comments
Last Updated On August 2, 2023

Jack Dykinga can punch you in the gut with a photo, like he did with his 1971 Pulitzer-winning portfolio, or he can seduce you with his understated yet thoroughly evocative landscape images. He’s one of the rare photographers who has excelled in multiple genres, has adjusted to multiple technological revolutions, and has successfully weathered the ups and downs of the photo industry. After over five decades in the business, Jack Dykinga’s photos remain relevant. Jack Dykinga’s photos endure.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Photo Courtesy of Jack Dykinga – All Rights Reserved

I recently had the great honor to spend an afternoon with Jack and talk photography. Dykinga is one of the most sought-after workshop teachers out there. He’s very sharp technically, but more important, he is a genius with light and composition. He has ten photo books in print including the recently released Capture The Magic – train your eye, improve your photographic composition.

Before we jump into the interview, here’s a quick bio of Jack’s career:

He first got recognition in high school, when a football photo he took for the school paper ended up winning a Look Magazine contest. For those of you not alive then, Look was a large format photo-heavy magazine and quite a heavy hitter back then – Life magazine’s direct competitor.

After high school he got a stint shooting celebrities at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. This was back in the press camera days (Look up Speed Graphic if you don’t know what a press camera is) Dykinga was about eighteen and already shooting anyone from pop crooner Andy Williams to President Nixon.

At age 20 Dykinga decided to attend college and went to the Chicago Tribune seeking night shift work as a darkroom tech. Instead of putting him to work in the darkroom, the newspaper sent him out on assignment. There was no going back. Dykinga worked for the Tribune for several years then moved over to the Chicago Sun-Times, a more liberal newspaper that embraced Life magazine-style photo essays and 35-mm shooting (the stodgy Tribune was still rolling with press cameras and medium format).

Brought up in a conservative Republican family, Dykinga became decidedly more liberal when covering the unrest of the late 1960’s. Speeding up his liberalization was the beating he received at the hands of the police while documenting the Civil Rights marches into Cicero, Illinois and the riots after Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination.

In 1970, while working for the Sun-Times, Dykinga was assigned to shoot a story on conditions at state-run mental hospitals. The state wanted to cut funding. Parents of the autistic children “warehoused” there were enraged. When he arrived, Dykinga was so horrified by the conditions he couldn’t lift his camera. The bleak wards were filled with distressed children curled up on bare benches, stripped-down beds or on the floor. Many were naked. There was an ubiquitous smell of human excrement. An hour-and-a-half passed, then Dykinga started shooting. Three days later he was done. His photo essay so shocked the public that instead of cutting funds for the hospitals, the state ended up increasing funding. This result proved how powerful telling stories through photography could be. The experts agreed and in 1971 Dykinga was awarded photojournalism’s highest honor, the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

Not long after, Dykinga was burning out on newspaper photojournalism. Coinciding with this was an assignment to photograph a climb of Mount Rainier. On the climb he was enveloped by a whiteout on the mountain. This near-death encounter with nature so impressed Dykinga that he soon left the big city of Chicago behind and moved west. He landed in Tucson where he worked as photo editor of the Arizona Daily Star.

Out west, he sought out Phillip Hyde, a student/protege of Ansel Adams. Hyde was using landscape photography as a tool to save wild places. Hyde became a mentor to Dykinga, who put the 35mm camera down and shifted over to large format view cameras. He went from “f/11 and be there” to “f/64 and live there.”

From then until the present, Dykinga has traveled near and far documenting the natural world and promoting conservation. He strongly believes one must get to really know an area before they can successfully photograph it. In the process, he has worn out nearly as many camper trucks as cameras. In 2011 he was awarded the Outstanding Photographer of the Year award from the North American Nature Photography Association. While the name Dykinga has now become synonymous with top quality landscape photography, Jack has remained true to his photojournalism roots, using the power of his photography to affect positive change.

At that let’s go to the video and turn it over to Jack, soak in some photo wisdom and enjoy some magnificent images.

For more of Jack’s work, pick up Capture the Magic and also visit Dykinga.com. Jack’s currently on a mission to scan his massive film archives into digital for a career retrospective project. Lucky for us he is frequently posting incredible images from his archives on the Dykinga Photography Facebook page.

Text © John Sherman, Video © John Sherman and Dawn Kish with Included Photos © Jack Dykinga

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Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: Interview, Landscape Photography, Large Format, Nikon D810, Photography Legends

About John Sherman

John “Verm” Sherman is one of only 25,000 wildlife and nature photographers based out of Flagstaff, Arizona. In 2012 he was awarded Flagstaff Photography Center’s Emerging Artist of the Year award. He has since submerged into internet notoriety but comes up occasionally to contribute to Arizona Highways Magazine.

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Andy
Andy
December 29, 2015 6:18 pm

Enjoyable interview.

0
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Craig Spencer
Craig Spencer
December 29, 2015 9:33 am

John nails it again, Great interview, video work and sound. Background music created a calming and not an interference with the dialogue.

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Reply
Tam Ryan
Tam Ryan
December 29, 2015 9:19 am

Thank you Jack for your insights. I have been a fan of your work for many years. I am looking forward to many more years being inspired by your photography.

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Reply
David Bee
David Bee
December 27, 2015 7:25 am

Thank you John and Dkish for a great Christmas present. You’ve both done a wonderful job bringing us a great photographer. I’m out buying his book now :) As for the future – what would you say to an interview with yourself? You have a good history of wildlife and landscape photography; and, having been on the road with you, an infectious passion for the light.

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John Sherman
John Sherman
Author
Reply to  David Bee
December 27, 2015 5:27 pm

As soon as my Pulitzer arrives – must have got held up in the holiday mail ;)

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Reply
Peter
Peter
December 26, 2015 8:00 pm

Oh goodness. Oh my goodness! thank you.

Peter

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Reply
John Sherman
John Sherman
Author
Reply to  Peter
December 27, 2015 5:27 pm

Oh my goodness you’re welcome Peter.

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Reply
erol paker
erol paker
December 26, 2015 12:09 am

very well presented and nice pictures. I will go back to my landscape photo archieves, will be a bit de-moralized first, but having learned a few more things about the use composition,perspective and light, will try making new photos eagerly in 2016. Thanks for sharing it. Merry Christmas and best photo opportunities in 2016

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DAVID ZICKL
DAVID ZICKL
December 24, 2015 11:17 pm

Nice job!!!
Thanks for sharing Jack with us.

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Reply
dkish
dkish
Reply to  DAVID ZICKL
December 28, 2015 9:38 am

Thanks David, Happy 2016

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Reply
Monsour
Monsour
December 24, 2015 6:17 pm

Thank you John Sherman and DkIsh! This is such a wonderfully, artistically made piece. The editing is tops too. Full of great quotes from beginning to end. :)

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Didaskalos
Didaskalos
December 24, 2015 2:52 pm

Thanks for capturing the wisdom of Jack Dykinga and sharing it with all of us.

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Reply
John Sherman
John Sherman
Author
Reply to  Didaskalos
December 24, 2015 3:34 pm

You’re welcome. I hope we can do more content like this.

Verm

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Reply
Herb
Herb
Reply to  John Sherman
December 24, 2015 7:13 pm

‘Would enjoy those, thanks John. Quality articles focussing on creativity to balance the necessary articles on equipment will help elevate any photography blog above a unconscious mindset. The consumerist approach which photography as a discipline or past time allows to creep in so easily really is part of it’s bery nature, like off road driving….. Enjoy your festive days!

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Reply
KomradeKiev
KomradeKiev
December 24, 2015 12:12 pm

Thanks for the interview! So many insightful thoughts hit home for me, especially as I try to move towards being a more deliberate and thoughtful image maker.

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Reply
John Sherman
John Sherman
Author
Reply to  KomradeKiev
December 24, 2015 3:34 pm

Komrade,

If you haven’t picked up Capture the Magic I find it helps me slow down, think more, and try to do better than I might if I just rush out and blast away.

Cheers,
Verm

0
Reply

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