Born in 1952, David Read, the executive director of Yuba Sutter Arts and Culture, quickly became his father’s favorite subject. Copious still images were created along with 16mm movies of young David frolicking in the sprinkler in the family’s backyard in Venice, California. Photo courtesy of Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture 

MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) - The earliest career aspiration of Yuba Sutter Arts and Culture’s (YSAC) Executive Director, David Read, was to become a professional photographer like his father. Although he got sidetracked and wound up in a marketing career, photography as both photographer and subject has been a constant in his life.

Join Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture for this abbreviated life history through photos by and about someone in our community who has worked to make art a priority in Yuba-Sutter. Complimentary drinks and appetizers will be served. Mark the calendar for July 11, starting at 5 p.m. It’s all happening in the Art Box Gallery at the Sutter Theater Center for the Arts, 754 Plumas St. in Yuba City. 

Read’s father, Edmond Curtis Read Jr., learned the basics as a photographer in the U.S. Air Force while stationed at Homestead Air Force Base in south Florida. Edmond Read Jr. went on to advance his knowledge and skills at the Fred Archer School of Photography closer to home in Los Angeles after his time in service. As a fringe benefit, Edmond Read Jr. met his future wife, and David Read’s mother, Charlene, during a photo session when her modeling school visited the photography school and she was one of the subjects he was assigned to photograph. They soon bonded over their mutual love of outdoor activities and especially fishing. 

Born in 1952, David Read quickly became his father’s favorite subject. Copious still images were created, along with 16mm movies of young Read frolicking in the sprinkler in the family’s backyard in Venice, California. Soon, baby brother Robert arrived as well as sister Diane Read at convenient four-year intervals. Custom and highly creative holiday greeting cards ensued along with formal portraits including classic nude baby images. The family had moved from Los Angeles to Miami, Florida when David Read was about two. Edmond Read Jr. had taken a job at WTVJ, the CBS affiliate in south Florida to be their corporate photographer and the head of their movie film processing department back when news reporters brought back undeveloped film from their day’s reporting to be shown on the evening news. The station had an extensive still photography lab and David Read grew up in that environment with the smell of developer and fixer on his hands helping his dad process the rolls of film and create prints under the red safety light. Watching the images appear on the photo paper while immersed in the chemicals proved magical and made a lasting impression. 

The family home in Miami had a large wall display of Edmond Read Jr.’s art photographs. These were mostly landscapes of the west where he had traveled extensively before the move to Florida. All black and white with dark skies and white billowy clouds, they were right out of Ansel Adams’ playbook. Later, a move back to Los Angeles saw the dissolution of the marriage, but photography remained a constant for David Read even during troubled times. He took photography and art classes in high school and college as well as theater and soon began taking head shots for actor friends. He photographed theatrical productions at school and began earning money photographing special events like weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, corporate picnics and formal portraits. In his spare time, he traveled and camped and, yes, photographed western landscapes just like his dear old dad. He followed his father’s footsteps and shot primarily with medium format cameras including a Rolleiflex and later, Hasselblads. The iconic photo that headlines his show is of David Read posed on the hood of the family car in front of the WTVJ TV station holding his dad’s large format 4-inch-by-5-inch Speed Graphic.  

While David Read pursued a career in photography for many years, he gradually took increasingly more lucrative positions in sales and marketing, first for Hyatt Hotels in their restaurant development division and later in medical equipment sales.  Somewhat accidentally or at least inadvertently, he held onto these ancient images, adding magnitudes of additional photographs of his activities, family and children and now grandchildren. These days he most often captures those golden moments with his trusty iPhone, always at his side which he says is a lot easier than in the old days of hauling around a heavy camera bag loaded with extra lenses and other gear. Stop by the Sutter Theater Center for the Arts on July 11 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. to see this lifetime of photographs and share your own stories of life in front of and behind the lens. 

The Art Box Gallery is located inside the Sutter Theater Center for the Arts. Your purchase of a work of original art helps support Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture.  For additional information about this exhibition and the reception, contact Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture at [email protected].

Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide arts programming, education, advocacy, assistance and service to artists, organizations and residents of Yuba and Sutter counties. The local affiliate for Yuba and Sutter of the California Arts Council, its programs include Arts in Education, Veterans Initiatives in the Arts, Arts in Corrections, Very Special Arts Festival, Convergence Theater Company, Center Stage Productions, the Yuba Sutter Big Band, the Yuba Sutter Youth Choir and more.