Columbus Monthly / July 2011 / July / Goodbye, Jeffrey

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Goodbye, Jeffrey

An ode to Jeffrey Rycus.

In 1974, Jeffrey Rycus left his job as a writer and photographer at the state mental health department to work for a start-up business in German Village.

At age 30, he was ready to take a risk with a small group of people who thought this region was ready for a city magazine called Columbus Monthly.

In that first issue in June 1975, Jeffrey was listed on the masthead as the Photography Editor. He held that position until late 1984, when he left to begin his own business. But he never severed his connection to the magazine.

In fact, the name “Rycus” has appeared as a photo credit in every issue of Columbus Monthly for the past 36 years—more than 430 editions.

That streak, however, ends after this issue.

Jeffrey is dissolving Rycus Associates Photography and moving on to other adventures, from staying involved with national photography associations to spending more time in Michigan at his lakeside home and riding his two motorcycles. (His business partner, Michael Foley, whose work is quite familiar to our readers, has started his own enterprise and will continue to shoot for us.)

The number of Jeffrey’s photos we’ve published is too many to count. “It was a dream job,” he says. “When I was a kid I wanted to be a photographer for National Geographic, but in lieu of that I wanted a gig at a magazine photographing food, people, interiors.”

He ticks off a who’s who list of memorable photo subjects: artist Elijah Pierce, evangelist Leroy Jenkins, businessman and photographer Richard Ross, lawyer Benson Wolman, musician Ray Eubanks, banker and civic leader John B. McCoy, television personality Angela Pace, former Columbus Symphony director Alessandro Siciliani.

For many years, Rycus took the photos that appeared in our Parties section. “I was known as the Photographer of the Stars,” he says with a laugh. He also shot some of those stars’ bedrooms, closets and other parts of their houses for Columbus Monthly Homes. (And a running joke in the early years involved Jeffrey making sure his car, some variation of a Porsche, was in the frame of street shots, among other things.)

He says his most memorable photo shoot involved Greg Lashutka, who was completing his second term as mayor of Columbus in 1999—and not running for reelection. Lashutka clearly couldn’t wait to leave public office, and Jeffrey’s job was to capture his pleasure in departing.

One problem. While Lashutka was prone to tearing up easily, the former Ohio State football star also could be tough and reserved. Jeffrey brought Lashutka into his studio, wanting to tap into “something more than a smile, something more that showed joy.”

So he asked Lashutka if he could display “some energy” and suggested he click his heels. The mayor agreed to try, becoming more animated and energetic with each attempt—smiling more, jumping higher, throwing up his hands. “I was shooting as fast as I could,” Jeffrey says of the sight of the man Columbus Monthly sometimes called the Incredible Bulk jumping thunderously in his studio. “It was wonderful and unique.”

As were the photos, one of which became the cover image of the October 1999 issue (a favorite of mine).

Jeffrey says he later received a letter from the former mayor: “He wrote, ‘You’ll always be my favorite photographer.’ ”