(DAN WALTON / iNFOnews.ca)

A local photographer who has been taking portraits of nearly every graduate in the Penticton for the past 40 years is being replaced by a Burnaby company at one high school.

Photographer Stuart Bish has been snapping grad photos for Penticton Secondary School since 1972, and until this year, he was the grad photographer for Princess Margaret since it first opened as a secondary school in 2002. Every public school student to graduate from Penticton in the past 40 years has a portrait in his archive.

Only in 1998 was Bish not the photographer for Penticton grads, when the school board wanted to save money by going with a photography company from Vancouver. The school board reversed course, choosing the local photographer again the following year. Back then the school board made the decisions regarding photography, he said, whereas the schools have more autonomy over the issue now. 

READ MORE: South Okanagan photographer catches return of spring birds to the valley

Taking grad photos at Princess Margaret this year will be Mountain West Studios out of Burnaby. Princess Margaret principal Roger Wiebe said in an email the final price tag is not in yet but he expects it will be lower than Bish’s rate, adding that students are the customers and not the school.

Another factor in the decision for a different photography company has greater compatibility with the school’s yearbook.

“Mountain West has a direct relationship with our yearbook publisher, Jostens, and it is much more straightforward and efficient for them to do all of the photos, rather than having a separate studio do one part of that,” Wiebe said.

The school has never been approached by a local company offering to take all school photos, he said.

“Any other reasons are between the school and Stuart Bish Photography and disclosing them to a third party would be unprofessional on my part and disrespectful to Stuart Bish Photography.”

Bish argues he could easily accommodate the yearbook publisher because he follows the industry standard.

“I’m capable of supplying yearbook files in that way… it’s no more than a click of a mouse to upload a second batch of files.”

Bish's digital data – which goes back to 2002 – is backed up on multiple storage devices, stored in fireproof safes, and also saved in cloud storage. He wants the images to always be available for any former grad to purchase. Decades worth of film are stored away for local students who graduated before 2002.

Grad photos taken by Mountain West Studios are only available 10 years after, although the company is exploring options to indefinitely extend the availability. 

In order to preserve his 40-year-old archive, Bish is hoping to take grad photos for the students of Princess Margaret even though he is no longer the official photographer. He will still be adding to the archive in 2022 with portraits from Pen High grads, and he will also be taking grad photos at Summerland Secondary School for the third time this year.

“If not all the students come, the archive will have a gap in it,” he said.

The Vancouver business that took grad photos in 1998 provided copies to Bish for his archive.

READ MORE: Kamloops photographer wins UN photo contest, lands on international stage

He is offering to shoot portraits for Princess Margaret grads at no immediate cost in order to reduce the number of missing faces in his archive. Grads and family members will have the option to purchase their photos at any point in the future.

The school is helping to inform graduates about Bish’s pricing and booking times.

“Stuart Bish asked the school to do that this year and we were happy to facilitate that for him,” said Wiebe. “The school has not yet provided any specific information about Mountain West’s grad portrait times and pricing. So, for all intents and purposes, Stuart Bish Photography has first access to the customers.”

- This article was corrected Oct. 30, 2021. This article initially said Mountain West Studios only stores copies of its grad photos for two to three years but the company actually stores them for more than 10 years.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Dan Walton or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2021