Photographer Clyde W. “Red” Hare Jr., 82

 

By Jim Mendenhall

PITTSBURGH, PA (October 15, 2009) – Clyde W. “Red” Hare Jr. carried enthusiasm with him as regularly as other great photographers carry a camera.
 
The Western Pennsylvania-based photographer died Wednesday, October 14, at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh according to his son, Gerald Hare. Mr. Hare was 82 years old, and was married to Patricia (Wycoff) for 57 years.
 
He was born July 11, 1927, in Bloomington, IN, and graduated from Indiana University there. He was a freelance photographer for more than 50 years in western Pennsylvania where some of his elite corporate clients included U.S. Steel, Westinghouse, and Heinz.
 
His infectious chuckle and selflessness infused the atmosphere whether he was in a senator’s New York home or on an I-beam over The Point.
 
His style of photorealism revealed every rivet. People in his images nearly always had a sense of place amid the ubiquitous hot iron or cold steel of Pittsburgh in renaissance periods last century.
 
His work is among the collections of The George Eastman House, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the John Heinz History Center among others.
 
Mr. Hare came to Pittsburgh to work with Roy E. Stryker, considered the father of photojournalism. Stryker had been an economist who ran the federally funded Works Projects Administration photography initiative during the Great Depression. Mr. Hare worked for Stryker in the Pittsburgh Photographic Library Project covering the city’s Renaissance I from 1950 to 1953 for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
 
As Pittsburgh cycled through its renaissance periods, the pre-eminent corporate, editorial, and advertising photographer climbed too. His work was published in premiere national magazines including cover stories for National Geographic and Life. He published many collections and books including, “Clyde Hare’s Pittsburgh: Four Decades of Pittsburgh Frozen in Light,” a masterwork published in 1994 by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. He worked with the finest equipment available, such as the unusual Linhof 4x5 inch film view camera.
 
He taught Visual Communications at Carnegie Mellon University from 1968 to 1981, and then Mr. Hare continued as a guest lecturer for their Design History II classes until 2007.  
 
He was a member of the inaugural University of Missouri Photojournalism Workshop and continued his association with them for 13 years. 
 
A viewing will be October, 18 at Herbert R. King, Jr. Funeral Home, 2841 Woodland Circle in Hampton Township (Allison Park), 15101. Funeral services will be Monday, October 19 at 11 a.m. at Parkwood United Presbyterian Church , 4829 Mt. Royal Blvd., Hampton Township (Allison Park), 15101. Internment will be in Batesville, IN, the following Thursday, October 22.
 
He is survived by his wife, Patricia (Wycoff), and their three sons: Gerald of Hampton Township; Paul of Albany, NY; and Tim of Wexford. Mr. Hare has five grandchildren: Jennifer, Brian, Corinne, Brandon, and Ryan. 
 
His family in Indiana had been in the furniture making business and manufactured some of the now antique “Hoosier” cabinets.

 

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