He started out the same as many kids his age growing up in the 70s as 9-10-11 year olds, collecting baseball cards. But Joe Territo looked at the cards differently than his friends did. “All my friends were interested in the back of the card, reading and studying the stats. I liked the pictures, I was drawn to the pictures, not because I liked the way the player looked, it was the whole picture and how it was composed. I was always drawn to sports pictures. I used to cut them out from Sports Illustrated and hang them on my wall. I chose the pictures, not because I liked the player, but because I liked the picture. That is when, as a child, I started to develop my eye for photographs and sports imaging,” Territo said.
For the past seven seasons, life-long Greece resident and Olympia High School graduate Joe Territo has been the team photographer for the Rochester Red Wings. Territo has always been a Red Wings fan. His dad took him to the games at the old Silver Stadium on Norton Street when he was growing up. As a kid, team picture day was his favorite game day. “As soon as I got the picture I would sit in the stands and study it and memorize the players. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would one day be taking the team picture and watching kids in the stands studying my photograph of the team,” Territo said.
In 1983 Territo’s girlfriend, now wife, Kim, bought him a 35mm camera for Christmas. “I became obsessed with hockey. I used to sneak down to the press area without a press pass and take pictures until the usher kicked me out,” he said.
Early in his photography career, Territo worked with a radiologist who became his mentor. The doctor encouraged him to take his photos to the next level. Territo said, “He told me my work was good. He told me I should approach the Amerks about being their team photographer. He wrote a proposal and encouraged me to take samples of my work and go to the appointment that was set up for me. I was in my twenties with no confidence. When I showed the Amerks my photos they liked them. They hired me, and that was the day I became a professional photographer.”
Territo got the job as team photographer for the Red Wings as a result of some studio photography work he did for the team in the past. One of his pictures was chosen for the cover of their program. He was approached by a team staff member and asked if he would be able to do action photos for the team. With his past experience with the Amerks, he felt he could do it. “I was immediately accepted into the Red Wings family and felt very welcome. The team actually became my second family and I consider Red Wings stadium my summer home. I just love being there,” he said.
Territo’s first season with the Red Wings was 2012 and he had to decide his approach to documenting the team’s season. “The Red Wings allow a lot of freedom on how I do the job. I see the freedom as a compliment to the respect they have for my work,” Territo said. His approach is to keep his eye on all the action going on in the stadium during the game. “I cannot observe like a fan. I have to look at it as a focus on the pictures, I can’t get caught up in the game. I have to keep cool to catch the moment and have to stay focused.”
One of Territo’s favorite photography techniques is known as Composition Vignetting, described as the play of light and paying attention to the details of light and dark within the image. This approach to composition contributes to the artistic quality of the photo.
Through the years, Territo worked as an orderly, as an X-Ray technician and as a surgical technician at Park Ridge Hospital, all the while pursuing photography. Currently he works as an Ophthalmic photographer specializing in diseases of the retina.
Territo is also President of the Rochester Baseball Historical Society. RBHS began in 2007 and is an educational organization dedicated to the preservation, research and dissemination of the baseball history of greater Rochester.
Territo’s award winning photography career spans over 30 years as a professional photographer. Shown here are a few of his favorite pictures as team photographer for the Rochester Red Wings. More photos will be available at westsidenewsny.com. For more on Joe Territo visit www.joeterritophotography.com
