The PatitucciPhoto Story

Dan & Janine : India 2008

This post goes up as an introduction to who we are for our new Facebook Page. Sure you can read a brief summary on our Portfolio’s About Page, but if you feel like getting to know us a bit better, the personal story, here it is.

PatitucciPhoto is the husband and wife team of Dan and Janine Patitucci. In 1999 we set out to build a photography business, we didn’t know what that business would be, but we knew we wanted to make photos. After a little fashion work, commercial this & that, and editorial assignments – all of subject matter we were not interested in, we decided to stop pursuing being photographers, and start pursuing our passion – mountain sports and travel – of these things we loved, we would make some photos.

We bought a VW Westfalia, moved in, and hit the American roads. For two years we lived out of our van. We climbed, we ran trails, we hiked, and of course we made photos of it all. Along the way we made countless friends and a lot of contacts. What we didn’t make was money. But we persevered, strongly believing in the idea that to Follow your Dreams can only only lead to success. And so it did, but not after a lot of breakdowns in the VW.

Janine doing a little fishing in Alaska

Along the way were some detours. There was the much needed financial payoff of a spring and summer spent commercial fishing in Alaska. There was the winter spent living in a warehouse when every waking second was spent making PatitucciPhoto a reality – with a dial up connection. And there was a lot of time doubting that what we were doing would ever lead to anything but a long road trip with some funny stories. Amongst all of this we had amazing support from family, friends and a few very special businesses that believed in what we were doing.

In 2003 it started to come together, work started coming to us. We had settled in Bishop, California but were splitting our time between the US and Janine’s home country of Switzerland. For five years we went back and forth, shooting summer in Europe and winter in the US. Since 2003, we have been fortunate to have constant streams of commercial & editorial work as well as a thriving stock archive. In 2007, we decided to spend more of our time in Europe and settled in the Sud Tirol of northern Italy.

We often hear that we are living the dream life, followed by the, “How did you do it?”. While we feel endlessly fortunate, we did, and still do, work very, very hard. We had a vision, we believed in ourselves, and then what is really the most simple, yet difficult step – we started the process – and we never gave up. We believe the single most important factor is to be true to what you are most passionate about. For us, it is to be free and healthy, to surround ourselves with great people, to play in the mountains, and to make images derived from the energy created from this lifestyle.

Seems there is little need to add any photos here with the exception of some fun, “who we are” additions. If you want to see our portfolio, and what we do for work, it’s but a click away.

This is our story, and it’s ongoing. We hope you enjoy our work and would love to hear from you.

Dan & Janine Patitucci