About Pryde

Pryde Brown grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Her father gave her a Kodak Brownie for her seventh birthday and a Bolsey 35 millimeter when she left to spend her junior year in France. Her first published photographs were seen in the English edition of the The Crofter and The Laird by John McPhee.

In 1971 Pryde and her partner Elaine Miller bought a photography studio on Tulane Street from Ulli Steltzer, a Princeton legend. In 1981 Pryde opened her own studio on Chambers Street specializing in hand printed black and white archival photographs. Her eldest daughter, Laura McPhee, who studied with Emmet Gowin at Princeton University, assisted her and later pursued her own career as a landscape photographer. All five of her daughters and her five Sullivan children have worked with Pryde either on Tulane, Chambers Street or Hulfish and presently at 180 Nassau Street.

Over the 37 years photographing from her Princeton studio, one of the most satisfying aspects of her work has been the unique opportunity to work with scores of high school and college interns who have gone on to amazing careers, many in the visual arts. This experience has been one of the joys of her life.

A former intern writes,

"Hers is a life that has affected generations of families, waves of interns, the lives of her employees and the many who pass her windown on Nassau street. The subtle color portraits and the rare offering of hand printed black and white archival are both focused on the instant, "the click" that defines the moment. This art will endure and in the future her subjects will gain a bit of immortality from the beguiling and intriguing images caught at the turn of twentieth century."

Pryde's photographs have appeared in a wide range of publications such as The New Yorker, New York Magazine, More, Self, Real Simple, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, New Jersey Life, Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times.

She has photographed presidents, professors, senators, writers, musicians, actors, business professionals, and many pioneers. Most important, however, are the families, the babies, the brides, the graduates, and the children who have graced her studio, who have followed the Hasselblad and tripod to the gardens, to the arches, to hidden leafy spots where they smile and pout and play for the camera.