Dan & Janine on their first trip to the Swiss Alps in 2000. The first of many summits from a lifetime together in the Alps.


On the path

with contributing Osprey photographers Dan & Janine Patitucci

In 1991, I lived in my truck the whole year. I was selling espresso out of my truck. These were the early days where America had just discovered coffee drinks, like the cappuccino. Because my family is Italian, I grew up with that stuff.

The outdoor life. We all want it but few have pursued it with such genuine passion and commitment as Dan and Janine Patitucci. We chatted with Dan just before his trip to Morocco about how he began his journey and what tips he has for those looking to chart their own course.

The following was transcribed directly from our phone conversation.

 

Dan, 1991, somewhere in Utah being shot for a tights brand… seriously - I was the model. Proud!
Dan, 1991, somewhere in Utah being shot for a tights brand… seriously - I was the model. Proud!
Question:  I know who you are, I know what you do, but could you go into your background to start things off? How did you get into photography as a profession?

“I guess it started with climbing. I started climbing in 1988 and fell in love with it. I moved into my little truck with my camper shell and was on the road for several years. Climbing. A lot. I was really into sport climbing at the time.

I’m originally from Sacramento, CA, so I started climbing in Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. I became a “dirt bag” in the late 80’s; in ‘91 I lived in my truck the whole year. I was selling espresso out of my truck, these were the early days where America had just discovered coffee drinks, like the cappuccino. Because my family is Italian, I grew up with that stuff. I had the stovetop espresso pot, stovetop steamer, and was making cappuccinos for people at climbing areas and selling them in the morning. I was making mochas, but with bodybuilder protein, climbers at that time were totally into it. I was barely getting by; it was just this great time.

I had some sponsors, and they wanted me to shoot photos and do slideshows for REI. Climbing was so foreign, nobody really knew anything about it. So I started shooting photos and really liked it. As the years went by I started to manage a climbing gym in Davis and Beth Rodden, little Beth Rodden, was one of our junior climbers and she and I became really good friends. When she became phenomenal I started traveling with and shooting a lot of photos of her. I started selling my first photos in the mid-nineties, I was shooting Dan Osman and worked with Eric Perlman of “Masters of Stone” fame; that kind of stuff. I was totally in the climbing scene.

Beth Rodden in 2000, climbing at Indian Creek.
Beth Rodden in 2000, climbing at Indian Creek.
In 1997 I started to think “ok this will be my job, I’m not going to make any money climbing, what am I gonna do?” I took a year off, went to Italy, and realized I should probably go to a photography school of some sort to learn more. So I went to the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, which at the time was a really good school to learn more. I met Janine and we hooked up pretty quickly, but she was graduating while I was starting a three-year program. I’m not a school guy so I thought “well, she’s graduating and I’m not into this” so I bailed. I just dropped out of school.

I convinced Janine to move into our Westfalia. I’m so proud that I somehow managed to convince a Swiss girl to move into a car with a guy with no money and no degree to take up outdoor industry photography as a career, when she had everything going for her!

So we did it. We lived in our Westfalia for two years just driving around and shooting. We made contacts and got some work and the doors started opening. All of sudden we started getting assignments from magazines; we worked a lot with Patagonia for years, they really supported us. Because Janine is Swiss we were going back and forth between the US and Switzerland. We lived in Bishop, CA until in 2007 I decided I wanted to live in Europe full time. We lived in the Dolomites for five years, and now we’ve settled for good in Switzerland. Still doing the same stuff, still in the mountains basically every day of the year, together. I couldn’t do it without her, and she couldn’t do it without me.”


Janine looking out at the north face of Cholatse and in the distance, Ama Dablam, Nepal.
Janine looking out at the north face of Cholatse and in the distance, Ama Dablam, Nepal.
Question: It sounds like your path was a bit more organic than scripted; do you have any advice for people out there who are trying to get into photography or follow their passion, is there anything you have learned that you would like to share?

“We definitely look at it as a business. PatitucciPhoto is a business for sure, but more than anything, I just want to be in the mountains. I don’t shoot anything that I don’t do. I only shoot what we do in life. I don’t want to use the cliché, but it really is true to just stick to what you want, I’m going to say it…
 
Follow your dreams!

You know?! Just stick to it, it’s only a cliché if you don’t do it. If you do it, it goes beyond that. It’s real. It’s a cliché if you just say “err... follow your dreams” but I don’t think very many people really do it. 

I had this teacher at Brooks, he was kind of my mentor, and I just loved the guy. He was everybody’s first teacher at the school. He was Janine’s first teacher, my first teacher, he introduced us, and later, he even married Janine and I. He said something in school that really stayed with me, and he said it when we got married as well, “what’s the most important thing that a photographer can have?” as in what does every photographer have to have to be successful. Everyone was yelling what they thought it was, I think I said passion, and he just stood there and shook his head. Everyone was looking at him like “what is it!” 
 

PatitucciPhoto is a business for sure, but more than anything, I just want to be in the mountains. I don’t shoot anything that I don’t do. I only shoot what we do in life.

 
He just looked out and said “it’s courage, and the vision to see it through.” Looking back on 17 years he was right. You have to stick to it. It’s a really weird business, now more than ever, with all the things going on, it’s harder than ever, but there’s more opportunity than ever. I think he’s right. That’s what you have to do, because you get humiliated, you get humbled, you get turned down, you get said no to, you get ignored, and ultimately you just do what you love, just keep doing it. As long as you’re doing what you love, you’re doing what you love! The rest kind of falls into place so at least you have that. 

Somehow, it’s worked out.”
Dan Patitucci in Nepal, 2015
Dan Patitucci in Nepal, 2015
Our days off are still spent together, in the mountains, but we’ll make fewer photos. Janine, at the Engelhörner, 2015. Switzerland.
Our days off are still spent together, in the mountains, but we’ll make fewer photos. Janine, at the Engelhörner, 2015. Switzerland.
Question: Going back to you and Janine; being a professional working couple how do you guys work together and how would you define your and her role in the business?

“I’m the communicator, the marketing and sales guy. I’m shooting more these days because we’re shooting things that require more technical skill in the mountains and a certain level of fitness. I’m more or less a fulltime athlete as well ; I train a lot just to keep up with athletes we work with. Janine’s the backbone, she does all of our image processing, manages our websites , keeps everything organized in the office, schedules trips, studies locations. Like this Morocco trip; she just sent me the itinerary, every day broken down, she’s meticulous and makes my life easy. On shoots she is my other set of eyes. If I’m shooting and running around she’s the rock that stands there and studies everything; people, clothes and straps hanging off things, color coordination, but she definitely shoots as well. Quite a lot actually. She’s the main assistant at the start of a shoot, then she’ll pick up a camera when things get rolling.

I went running with two friends, it was all guys, and as we were all running….. Janine’s going to hear this she’s in the other room…. we all asked what everyone’s wife is doing. Turned out they were all working while all the guys are out on this four hour run. We laughed, this is working out pretty well.  

Ah she heard that – I can hear her yelling. [laughter]

I don’t know how we do it. It just works. We’re out every day doing something, together or on our own, or with friends. In 16 years, I think I’ve shot two assignments without her. She didn’t go to North Korea, and she didn’t go to China for another shoot. But that’s it. It’s easy.”
Question: Is there any shoot, clearly there have been a lot of them, but are there any that stick out as being the most memorable whether it be good or bad or whatever?

“What pops into my head? God there are so many.

Janine what’s the first shoot that pops into your head after all these years? She said our trail running trips. For me, it’s those moments, Dan [Holz] you know what this is, those trips when you work really hard and you see that image on the back of your screen that you think, “oh wow, this is something.” You know you’ve got something really special. Those moments. 

Actually, when Janine and I first moved to Interlaken we ran this ridge called the Hardergrat. It’s a 30km-long perfect ridge. 600M down on one side, and more on the other so it’s incredibly exposed. There’s a trail on the ridge top and  it’s a knife-edge in places, in some places  there are cables and if you fall you are. It’s this absolutely classic trail in Switzerland and if you live here you have to do it. So the first year we thought let’s do it, and we decided not to take a big camera because it’s a hard day , just a little Sony RX100. We wanted to run it and started at three o’clock in the morning from our house. We hadn’t been on the exposed section before and it was unbelievably beautiful. I remember standing there with this point and shoot thinking we were idiots for not bringing a real camera! It was an amazing morning with beautiful light. We couldn’t see what we were shooting very well because the camera didn’t have a viewfinder, so we just kept shooting, thinking we would have to come back another day with a better camera. At the same time we had this freedom. I remember shooting while I was running, then Janine would take the camera and shoot. It was this totally liberating day of not having a big camera, but at the same time being frustrated we didn’t bring it. Then at some point accepting it, and just running. 

We got home and looked at the images - they were fine, we couldn’t believe it.  Those images have been everywhere; Outdoor Research used one  as a trade show display, we’ve had countless magazine covers with another, even posters. I remember this realization that I could do what I loved in the mountains and not feel that I had to bring a big camera. It was a really nice feeling. 
 
Someday I’d love to do a trip and only have a small camera, to be freed from the pressure of shooting, shooting, shooting, big camera, gear, and just having some tiny camera and enjoying the trip more. I don’t’ get to do that much. The trips that stand out in my head are always the ones that are a little closer to a trip for us, and less of a photoshoot, but where things turn out good in the end.”

The trails from our house aren’t bad…. trail running beneath the Mönch in the Berner Oberland, Switzerland.
The trails from our house aren’t bad…. trail running beneath the Mönch in the Berner Oberland, Switzerland
Question: What’s next for you? What are you getting into in Morocco? 
 
“Morocco was supposed to be a ski tour, but this has been a really warm and somewhat dry  over here. There’s zero snow in Morocco, so, we’ve been keeping an eye on that and now here we are just about to leave and there’s still no  snow. It’s become a travel lifestyle shoot for Osprey. We didn’t really know what to do because we are traveling with two professional climbers, they’re mountain people. So we’ll just go climbing. But first, we’re going to be totally random and go sand dune skiing in the Sahara. 

After that it’s back to the Alps for ski tour shoots, then Tibet and Shishapangma with Ueli Steck and David Göttler, two of the world’s best alpinists. We are there for six weeks, it’s a long trip. After that, it’s all in the Alps, all summer. 

Six weeks is a long time to spend at a mountain, but we will see what happens. Sometimes when you’re on a climbing expedition if it the climb is done quickly, you’re out of there, but it can also be a waiting game.”

Our most recent trip - skiing Sahara sand dunes, with our great friend and regular in our images, Simon Duverney
Our most recent trip - skiing Sahara sand dunes, with our great friend and regular in our images, Simon Duverney
Dan’s upcoming plans involve lots of international travel, coffee, and trying his best to make us all jealous. Be sure to check in at www.patitucciphoto.com to see more from Dan & Janine. Also, get inspired at their new site ALPSinsight.com. Or, follow along at Instagram @danpatitucci