Lisle Chandler Updike Photographs

Lisle Chandler Updike was born May 25, 1890 in Erie, Pennsylvania, where his parents stopped briefly en route to Albion, New York. Self-taught and extremely independent at a very early age, Updike never received a formal education. As a child he and his younger sister, Alma, were tutored by their parents as they traveled extensively back and forth across the country. In an unpublished autobiography, Updike notes his earliest interest in photography (as recorded in his mother's diary kept during a wagon trip from Alamo City, Texas to Bisbee, Arizona between March 24, 1901 and March 24, 1902): April 20. Came into Abilene, Texas, a large town ... Mr. Barrett, a young photo man, has a room next to us. He gave us his pet prairie dog, it's so sweet. Lisle slept in Mr. Barretts' room last night, which gave us more room. This evening he took tintype pictures of Lisle and Alma. Two years later, at the age of thirteen, after watching and quizzing two more tintypists and supplementing his curiosity by reading books from public libraries, Updike was ready to go into the picture business.

As an itinerant photographer, Updike traveled across the country making tintypes at state fairs, circuses, carnivals, medicine and wild west shows. Updike attended every World's Fair from the 1893 Chicago Fair to the 1968 Montreal Expo. In 1906 Updike entered into a partnership with William Pennington and together they opened the Pen Dike Studio in Durango, Colorado. Pennington maintained the studio while Updike continued to travel throughout the West in a five wheel hack specially outfitted as a traveling darkroom and studio. In 1908 Updike was commissioned to photograph the ruins at Mesa Verde, Colorado for the Smithsonian Institution. Shortly after he joined the Mormon Church and married Janet Jarvis in 1912, Updike moved his studio to St. Johns, Arizona where he renamed it Jen Dike Studio.

A member of the Photographers Association of America, Updike is well known for his photographs of Native American and early Arizona ranch life, many of which appeared in the first issues of Arizona Highways. Updike was so enthralled with the Zuni marathon races that he both photographed and participated in them, practicing by running alongside his team of horses between Durango, Colorado and St. Johns, Arizona. Updike moved his studio from St. Johns to 24 E. Washington Street in Phoenix in 1932, where it sported one of Arizona's first large neon signs. Updike was also a great innovator and inventor. He introduced, in collaboration with Pennington, the first photographic baby contest in the West. In 1922-23 in Minneapolis he invented a collapsible trailer that he, his wife, and their two sons used in their travels. In 1927 Updike invented the first semi-automatic photo machine, which he called the original photograph dime machine; four poses for ten cents. Updike and Barry Goldwater were among the first to use 35mm color slides and to take 16mm color movies in the West during the 1930s. In the 1940s Updike designed and GM built one of the first modern motor homes. In 1948, Updike helped develop the Polaroid camera.

In 1954, Updike turned over the studio to his son Earl, who changed the name to Updike Studios. After retiring from the picture business, Updike, with his second wife, Ethal, continued to travel and photograph until his death at age 86 on August 2, 1976. Updike Studios continues to operate in Phoenix and Salt Lake City, Utah.