{"id":12897,"date":"2023-02-16T21:58:24","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T21:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/winter2023\/?page_id=12897"},"modified":"2023-02-22T21:30:58","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T21:30:58","slug":"les-duggins-usc-upstate-photographer-retires","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/winter2023\/les-duggins-usc-upstate-photographer-retires\/","title":{"rendered":"Parting Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Les Duggins at work.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n
\nYou may have never met Les Duggins (though if you\u2019re a Spartanburg resident, there\u2019s a pretty good chance you have), but you\u2019ve most certainly seen his work. Just turn a few pages of this magazine, and you\u2019ll find his photos.<\/p>\n

Duggins recently retired after 14 years as USC Upstate\u2019s official photographer. But his career began long before that. For the past 50 years, Duggins has photographed pretty much everyone who is anyone in the Spartanburg region \u2013 and beyond. From The Marshall Tucker Band to National Football League gridiron legends and many others, he has captured Spartanburg\u2019s history through the lens of a camera.<\/p>\n

His photography career began in 1973, when he went to work as a staffer for B&B Studio and the Spartanburg Herald-Journal<\/em>. In 1981, he opened his own photography studio near the city\u2019s east side.<\/p>\n

Through a combination of hard work, skill, and customer service, Duggins eventually caught the eye of Spartanburg entrepreneurial leader Jerry Richardson, the founder and former owner of the NFL\u2019s Carolina Panthers.<\/p>\n

In 1990, Duggins went to work for Richardson\u2019s company Spartan Foods as the manager of the Creative Service Photography Department. He was named one of the Panthers\u2019 team photographers in 1994. Duggins returned to the Herald-Journal<\/em> in 1999 to serve as photo editor. As anyone who has ever accompanied Duggins on a photo shoot can attest, it seems like everyone in Spartanburg knows and respects him.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Duggins joined USC Upstate as the university photographer. For the past 14 years he has captured some of the most iconic images of campus. His work includes the opening of the George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics in downtown Spartanburg, multiple commencement ceremonies, chancellor investitures, and more. His extensive collection of building, campus beauty, and student images have elevated the story of USC Upstate\u2019s critical role in the region and state.<\/p>\n

While Duggins may be officially retired, expect to see him out in the community taking pictures. He\u2019ll be the one hovering at the edge of the action with his cameras around his neck, looking for just the right angle and the best lighting.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may have never met Les Duggins (though if you\u2019re a Spartanburg resident, there\u2019s a pretty good chance you have), but you\u2019ve most certainly seen his work. Just turn a few pages of this magazine, and you\u2019ll find his photos. Duggins recently retired after 14 years as USC Upstate\u2019s official photographer. But his career began […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/winter2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/winter2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/winter2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/winter2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/winter2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12897"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/winter2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13169,"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/winter2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12897\/revisions\/13169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/winter2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}