 "Photo: Photo by Darrell Sapp, Courtesy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette")
When Darrell Sapp was growing up, photography was merely a hobby. Little did he realize that his interest would eventually lead him to a career as a photographer with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Sapp got his start in the photography club when he was attending Christiana High School in Delaware. “The camera equipment and the chemicals were expensive,” Sapp said, “but the school covered the costs.”
Sapp started by photographing sporting events and other school-related events. “I would take some pictures at junior-high cross country meets and basketball games,” Sapp said. “It was fun and I enjoyed it.”
On one occasion Sapp’s grandmother bought him a processor and a film developing kit for Christmas. Needless to say, he put them to good use.
“I would put tape over the bathroom window and use it as my dark room,” Sapp said. “I kind of took it over.”
Sapp also used the bathroom as a makeshift photo studio. He would arrange his Star Trek models in front of a piece of black poster board with holes poked in it. He would then put a light behind the poster board to create the appearance of stars as the USS Enterprise went flying through space.
Photography was something consistent for Sapp, whose family life was rather inconsistent.
“When I was in the sixth grade we moved three times and twice when I was in seventh grade,” Sapp said. “I hated the constant moving around.”
Ironically, Sapp enjoys the inconsistencies of being a photographer.
“If I did the same thing day in and day out it probably wouldn’t go very well,” Sapp said.
Upon graduating from high school, Sapp enrolled at Fairmont State University in West Virginia as a psychology major.
When he attended orientation he filled out an application for a part-time job as a photographer with The Fairmont Times. “I got the job that night,” Sapp said.
However, after two years as an undergraduate student, Sapp decided to not continue his education at Fairmont State. “It just wasn’t for me,” Sapp said.
Sapp was only working three days a week and needed a steadier income than his part-time job at the Fairmont Times had to offer. He planned on moving back home to Delaware to help his family.
When Sapp told the Fairmont Times publisher this, he was offered a full-time position.
“I had applied for jobs in Wilmington and didn’t hear anything,” said Sapp. “But it ended up working out in Fairmont.”
Sapp remained with The Fairmont Times for seven years, until he began working for a larger paper in Morgantown, W.Va. Soon, he would get his big break.
In 1979, Sapp interviewed for a position with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He was hired August 26. “I couldn’t get out of [Morgantown] fast enough,” Sapp said.
In Pittsburgh, Sapp had covered everything from the Penguins’ back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in the early 1990s to President Obama eating pancakes at Pamela’s Diner in the Strip District.
“I’m doing things I want to do,” said Sapp.
His work does not go unnoticed. “I wish I had five more people like [Darrell],” said Kurt Weber, the photo operations manager for the Post-Gazette. “He knows how to make something visually interesting.”
The executive editor of the Post-Gazette has an opinion similar to Weber’s.
“In our newsroom Mr. Sapp’s name is not only a noun; it is an adjective as well,” said David Shribman. “We speak of ‘a Sapp image’ or ‘a Sapp scene,’ and by that we mean a still life of a city crackling with life. “
The photographer’s pictures have done more than provide a view for the people of Pittsburgh; they have even amazed the inventor or the polio vaccine.
“One time I took a picture of Jonas Salk on his 80th birthday,” said Sapp. “He told me later he wanted that picture to run with is obituary.”
Sapp has received many compliments about his work. “I get e-mails with people saying they remember this and that,” Sapp said. “In some cases it is more than a picture to them.”
On a foggy morning in Pittsburgh, Sapp took a picture of a barge on the Ohio River. The image ran the next day in the Post-Gazette. Sapp received an e-mail from a woman several days later. Her sister had died from breast cancer the night before the image ran in the paper.
“In the e-mail, the woman said the picture made her realize that her sister was okay,” said Sapp. “It was the ultimate compliment.”
Lately the Post-Gazette photographer has garnered a great deal of attention due to his scenic pictures of the Pittsburgh skyline. “It seems to be what people identify me with,” said Sapp.
That opinion is echoed by his son. “I really enjoy seeing my dad’s pictures of the city,” said Drew Sapp, a student at Edinboro University. “It gives me a different look at something I see a lot.”
In addition to receiving many e-mails and compliments on his work, Sapp was awarded a Golden Quill in 2009 for a photograph of the Pittsburgh skyline. His greatest honor to date is a nomination for a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for a set of photographs entitled “A Pittsburgh Portfolio.”
“[‘A Pittsburgh Portfolio’] has remarkable images of a remarkable place: moving, evocative, powerful,” said Shribman.
Today Sapp is a successful photographer taking scenic pictures of Pittsburgh for the Post-Gazette - and it all started with Star Trek models in a bathroom.
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