{"id":44058,"date":"2025-07-10T13:34:46","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T20:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3rdactmagazine.com\/?p=44058"},"modified":"2025-07-10T13:34:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T20:34:46","slug":"ernie-sapiro-dont-be-afraid-to-play-work-and-occasionally-be-ridiculous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3rdactmagazine.com\/ernie-sapiro-dont-be-afraid-to-play-work-and-occasionally-be-ridiculous\/current-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Ernie Sapiro: Don\u2019t Be Afraid to Play, Work and (Occasionally) Be Ridiculous"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I got home after interviewing photographer Ernie Sapiro, the first thing I did was pull my high school yearbook from the shelf. He and I had just discovered that we were both in the same (huge) class at Seattle\u2019s Roosevelt High School, though we hadn\u2019t known each other back in 1974. There he was, shoulder-length shag haircut, big grin, bow tie. Or was it him? The yearbook caption read, \u201cDouglas I. Sapiro. Track. Skiing.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, my real name is Douglas Irving,\u201d Ernie said via email. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty ridiculous but here goes. When I was young, I had strawberry blonde hair and freckles. Down the block there was another kid, a couple years older than me who also had red hair and freckles. His name was Ernie. For whatever reason they started calling me Ernie Two and it just stuck at the time.\u201d Douglas\/Ernie decided he liked it. \u201cMy family calls me Douglas, but the rest of the world calls me Ernie.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Douglas, a fine name, to be sure. But I have to say it doesn\u2019t fit Ernie Sapiro nearly as well as Ernie.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a photographer, Sapiro has a knack for putting people at ease. He\u2019s not opposed to artsy techniques, but his focus is on capturing his subject\u2019s soul. Sapiro has photographed <\/span>several <\/span>3<\/span><\/i>rd<\/span><\/i> Act Magazine <\/span><\/i>covers<\/span><\/a> and in them you can see that when he says \u201csoul,\u201d he\u2019s talking about the exuberant, joyful core of a person. Nothing dark and stormy here. The cover of singer\/songwriter\/musician LeRoy Bell is one of his favorites. I happen to love the one of track star Madonna Hanna.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Photography has not been his lifelong calling. It is Ernie Sapiro\u2019s own third act. He began his adult life as a guitar player in a number of iconic Northwest rock bands, including Uncle Cookie, the Moberlys, The Lonesome City Kings, and the Cowboys. His day job, for 30 years, was with Red Robin, the beloved Seattle burger restaurant that grew into a national chain. \u201cI started as a janitor and left as a vice president,\u201d Sapiro said. When he left, \u201cabout a dozen years ago,\u201d there were 450 Red Robins across the country. Many of them had been opened by Sapiro himself. After Red Robin, he worked for Restaurants Unlimited for a few years. And then he was done and ready for his third act.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sapiro\u2019s father, Scotty Sapiro, was a photographer\u2014first in New York and then in Seattle. The family moved across the country when Ernie was nine. Scotty Sapiro\u2019s clients eventually included Rainier Beer, Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer. Ernie loved hanging out in his dad\u2019s studio, even though he did not ever imagine, until he retired from the restaurant world, that he would someday follow in Scotty Sapiro\u2019s footsteps.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0But he remembers his father\u2019s best bit of advice: When you\u2019re looking through the viewfinder, \u201cLook for something that you haven\u2019t seen.\u201d Ernie\u2019s expanded version: \u201cIt\u2019s like jazz. You start in one place and wind up somewhere else.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But, as with jazz, you have to know what you\u2019re doing. You have to practice. And study. All of which Sapiro embraced enthusiastically. \u201cI\u2019m\u2014what\u2019s that great word\u2014an auto-didact.\u201d A lifelong learner. Though he \u201cnever questioned his ability to frame a shot\u201d\u2014thanks to all he had learned from watching his father\u2014Sapiro took lots of classes. He studied digital photography and photo editing, and he also enrolled in seminars on how to run a successful freelance business. He shot \u201canything and everything,\u201d often for free in his very first years, including school portraits, family portraits and weddings. He took pictures for the Seattle Storm WNBA team, the Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team, bands and musicians. His corporate clients include T-Mobile, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, and the SAFE Boats International boat-building company.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My own favorite from the Ernie Sapiro archives is a series of photos of Pacific Northwest Ballet\u2019s then-principal dancer Maria Chapman <\/span>dancing on the lunch counter<\/span><\/a> at the Athenian Restaurant in the Pike Place Market. \u201cThere was no money involved,\u201d Sapiro said. \u201cI did it for my own amusement. Nothing more.\u201d Sapiro\u2019s sister Dana had a long career as a ballet dancer and dancers have always been among his favorite subjects. Along with musicians, naturally.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2015, Sapiro had an idea. What if he shot portraits of musicians\u2014lots of musicians; some famous, some not\u2014then enlarged and hung them in a huge space and threw a massive party for everyone involved? The goal would be to celebrate the musicians. Profits from picture sales would be donated to <\/span>MusiCares.<\/span><\/a> Sapiro\u2019s friend, TV personality Nancy Guppy (<\/span>Almost Live<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Art Zone<\/span><\/i>), signed on to produce and find funding for what became <\/span>Musician: a Portrait Project<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/a> The supersized <\/span>photos (30 x 34) were hung, unframed, in the spacious Union Stables Building, which once was an actual stable, housing the horses that pulled Seattle\u2019s streetcars and firetrucks. Subjects ranged across the decades, from Merrilee Rush (\u201cAngel in the Morning\u201d) to jazz legend Bill Frisell to Susan Silver, the former manager of Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and The Screaming Trees.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sapiro lights up when he talks about <\/span>Musician<\/span><\/i>. It was everything he loves\u2014music, photography, capturing the souls of creative people. Throwing a big party. Not being afraid to \u201ckeep the child-playfulness in what we do as adults,\u201d to do the personal creative work that allows you to experiment without worrying about making money or pleasing a client.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not that he has anything against having clients. \u201cI\u2019m not rich,\u201d Sapiro said. Retiring \u201cdoesn\u2019t even come up\u201d when he looks ahead a few years, or several. Sapiro is 69, his wife Cathy is 65 and works as a human resources business partner for KING 5 TV. He and Cathy have two children, Tucker, 36, and Tess, 34, and one grandchild, Callum.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Callum, born in 2024, who just might get him to slow down. A little. Because, if you ask Ernie Sapiro what really matters, he will tell you: \u201cYou better have some fun. You better love. Run freely. Play freely. And don\u2019t be afraid to be ridiculous and crazy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ann Hedreen<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u202f<\/span><\/b>is an author <\/span><\/i>(<\/span>Her Beautiful Brain<\/span><\/a>), teacher of memoir writing, and filmmaker.\u202fHedreen` and her husband, Rustin Thompson, own\u202f<\/span><\/i>White Noise Productions<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u202fand\u202fhave made more than 150 short films and several feature documentaries together, including\u202f<\/span><\/i>Quick Brown Fox: An Alzheimer\u2019s Story<\/span>.\u202fShe is currently at work on a book of essays and is<\/span><\/i> a regular contributor to <\/span><\/i>3rd Act Magazine<\/span>, writing about topics including conscious aging, retirement, mindfulness, and health.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Make Your Own Kind of Music<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n