Rondal Partridge facts for kids

Rondal Partridge (born September 4, 1917 – died June 19, 2015) was a famous American photographer. When he was young, he worked as an assistant to two very well-known photographers, Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams. Later, he had a long and successful career taking pictures and even making films.

Early Life and Family

Rondal Partridge was born in San Francisco in 1917. He had a twin brother named Padraic. His parents were Roi Partridge, who was an etcher (someone who makes art by carving into metal), and Imogen Cunningham, who was also a famous photographer.

Rondal grew up in a home filled with art. He was always around great California artists from the early 1900s. For example, when he was just four years old, he stayed at the home of photographer Dorothea Lange and her husband, painter Maynard Dixon. Rondal became very close to Dorothea Lange, and their relationship was often like a mother and son.

Helping Famous Photographers

A 1935 photo by Rondal Partridge of Dorothea Lange

Rondal started helping his mother in her darkroom (a special room for developing photos) when he was only five. At 16, he became a photography assistant for Dorothea Lange. He helped her take pictures of rural poverty for a U.S. government agency called the Resettlement Administration. This agency was part of the "New Deal" programs that helped people during the Great Depression.

Lange paid Rondal one dollar a day plus his travel costs. He was her driver and darkroom assistant. He often slept outside in a sleeping bag while she stayed in a motel. Lange herself was paid four dollars a day for her important work.

From 1937 to 1939, Rondal worked for another famous photographer, Ansel Adams, in Yosemite National Park. He managed Adams's new automated darkroom in Yosemite Village. This darkroom made prints of Adams's photos to sell to tourists visiting the park.

In July 1937, another well-known photographer, Edward Weston, came to Yosemite. Adams had planned a trip into the High Sierra mountains. Rondal went with them and helped. They rode mules to places like the Minarets and Devils Postpile National Monument. After a week of taking photos, the group returned to Yosemite Valley. They learned that Adams's new darkroom was on fire! Rondal and others helped put out the flames. Many important photos were saved, even though some were lost.

His Photography Career

A 1940 photo by Rondal Partridge of a family riding a freight train in Roseville, California

In 1940, Rondal got a job with another New Deal agency, the National Youth Administration. He took pictures showing the challenges young people faced during the last years of the Great Depression.

Rondal's photography was different from Ansel Adams's. While Adams focused on the beauty of nature, Rondal photographed the parts of Yosemite that humans had changed. He also showed changes in the San Francisco Bay Area. He used his photos to show how people had affected nature. One of his most famous pictures was called Pave It and Paint It Green. This photo shows the famous Yosemite peak, Half Dome, in the background. But in the front, there is a parking lot full of cars. This photo was part of a special art show about Yosemite that traveled to several museums from 2006 to 2008.

Rondal Partridge took pictures of everyday working people. He also photographed many famous people like Odetta, Ruth Asawa, Judy Dater, John Carl Warnecke, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and Diego Rivera. He also took many pictures of his own mother, Imogen Cunningham.

Rondal Partridge passed away on June 19, 2015, when he was 97 years old.

Rondal Partridge's Thoughts on Photography

Rondal shared many interesting thoughts about being a photographer:

• "You know, you have to be an optimist, a pessimist, sarcastic, and pleasant all at the same time to be a photographer."
• "Ansel [Adams] always jumped over the fence to photograph, walked past the garbage. He always looked to get an immaculate view, and I spent my life stepping back to include the garbage in my photographic view."
• "I never think of myself as an artist. I think of myself as making a point."
• I have spent my life learning by looking through a lens."
• "I have an abiding faith in the fact that time will change the value of photographs. What you see today may be so familiar to everyone that they don't immediately appreciate or value it."

Fun Facts About Rondal Partridge

• Rondal once tied Ansel Adams's shoelaces together while Adams was asleep! Adams fired him right away but hired him back after he calmed down.
• In 1941, before joining the United States Navy, Rondal married Elizabeth Woolpert. She became a lawyer who helped people with low incomes.
• Rondal was a father to five children.
• He later worked as a photojournalist (a photographer who takes pictures for news stories) for the Black Star Agency in New York City. He also worked for the U.S. Navy Intelligence during World War II.
• His daughter, Elizabeth Partridge, said her father was "thrown by birth into this group of amazing people, and they all had something to teach him."
• Elizabeth also remembers that her father bought a black 1949 Cadillac limousine. He spray-painted it gold and put a mattress in the back for all the kids to sit on during long car trips.
• Near the end of his life, he enjoyed framing dried plants.