The SPC is a privately held Photography Archive founded in 1982 by Susan Parish a professional photographer since 1972 with generational roots along the shorelines of the Salish Sea. Parish has worked in all areas of professional photography and has degrees in Pacific Northwest History, the Humanities, and Communications. Her collection is located in the Southern Puget Sound and is the largest privately owned photographic archive of the Pacific Northwest, Puget Sound, and Salish Sea region.
Parish examines 8x10 negative. 1985 Photo by Carl Cook
"Early photographs are invaluable to our understanding of environmental and cultural history. They must be preserved, for within them lie untold stories and truths still waiting to be discovered. The future will reveal things our eyes cannot yet perceive, answering questions we have not yet learned to ask.
Visual communication is a kind of quiet telepathy, conveying meanings far different from the written word, shaped by the unique language each of us brings to what we see. With today’s restoration tools, damaged images can be revived, allowing details once hidden to emerge again.
Uncovering history—and rediscovering artists long forgotten or never known—is a thrilling experience. People and places long gone continue to live in the shadows of photographs, each image a window in time. As we lift the blindfolds of neglect and open the boxes and archives where these memories have slept, our history comes back into view." S. Parish
THE BEGINNING OF A PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHIVE
A FILM ABOUT THE JEFFERS COLLECTION AND SUSAN PARISH FROM 1986