Background
Darius Reynold Kinsey was born in 1869 in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri, United States.
Darius Reynold Kinsey was born in 1869 in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri, United States.
Kinsey arrived in Snowqualmic, Washington Territory, in 1889, where he obtained his first camera, a 6Vi x 8 Vi, and began photographing. He later added an 8 x 10 and a AVi x 6Vi to his collection. By 1894 he was traveling through the countryside, and he soon formed a partnership with his brother Clark, establishing a studio in Sedro- Woolley. Between 1897 and 1906 Kinsey organized seven major photo expeditions, including ones to Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier. He traveled widely in the western United States, and exhibited at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904. In 1906 he relocated in Seattle and worked until an accident in 1940 caused him to stop.
With his 11 x 14 Empire State camera, among others, he produced a monumental body of work: some 4500 surviving negatives and plates in eleven different formats (he switched from glass to film in 1914). With his heavy equipment he followed the timber from the forests to the mills to the docks, where schooners freighted away their cargo. Thus he depicted all aspects of the logging industry.
Quotes from others about the person
"Darius Kinsey at his best nudged genius," wrote David Bohn. He exhibited "a remarkable consistency of work - the smooth tonal range and tight control of contrast, the delicacy of so many of the pictures."
He married Tabitha on October 8, 1896, and she ran Kinsey Photo Studio's darkroom from 1899.