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Many well-meaning cosmopolitans have taken Davy Knapp aside to share similar versions of a like refrain: “Well,” they might sagely say, “you won’t be in Amarillo for long.”
That they recognize his prodigious talent—even while presuming it can flourish only in a major metropolitan area—is gratifying for the lifelong Amarilloan; however, Amarillo is not only where Davy remains, it is the base from which he continues to thrive.
“I’ve heard it 100 times and I still hear it today,” the owner of Davy Knapp Photography admits. “People think you have to live someplace like New York, Chicago or L.A. to be a truly successful photographer. They just assume that I’m bound to move, but Amarillo is our home.”
It is the home where Davy engages in the bulk of his professional work, but also the base from which he travels throughout the U.S. and to the Caribbean to create photographs for an ever-expanding clientele, people who are enthralled by his devotion to capturing the natural essence of preeminent family occasions.
Davy became interested in photography early in life and by age 17 he began to study the subject at Amarillo College, where he credits the faculty with developing his interest into something more.
“My teachers at Amarillo College took my rough interest in photography and turned it into a passion,” he said. “It shaped me and pointed me in the right direction. I left there with the tools to do what I love for a living.
“Amarillo College is a huge asset to this community,” he asserts. “It equips people for success. I get asked quite a lot by aspiring photographers how to get started in the business, and I tell them they could do no better than attend Amarillo College and acquire the fundamentals and technical skills they need, which some people mistakenly think they can skip in the digital age.”
Davy launched his Tyler Street studio about a dozen years ago and since that time, the 35-year-old proprietor has created untold thousands of photographs. Most have revolved around cherished family moments—weddings, graduations, births, families just being families—because nothing is more appealing or natural to Davy than the actions of a close-knit family, like his own.
He is driven, in his own words, by “relationships that are defined by quiet moments of truth,” and his ability to uniquely capture such moments, which others so often miss, is what sets him apart—and what prompts acquaintances to suggest that he take his expertise elsewhere.
Amarilloans need not worry about that, though; Davy, his wife Cassy and their three dogs are grounded right here at home, in Amarillo. Their roots run deep. And at both work and at play, Davy’s focus is on the family.
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