When Nick Brancaccio drives around Windsor with his wife Noria, he has an exhaustive story to share about every street corner.
"Things like that, they just stick with you," Brancaccio says, joking that his ‘audience of one' was likely growing weary of his endless barrage of local lore.
But after 41 years of taking photographs across Windsor-Essex and Metro Detroit for The Windsor Star, Brancaccio has volumes of stories to tell, and he's finally getting the chance to share them with the whole community.
The retired photojournalist and St. Clair College graduate has the privilege of showcasing 50 of his most memorable snapshots in an exhibit, currently running at the Chimczuk Museum within Art Windsor-Essex, titled: Windsor in Focus: Forty Years Through the Lens of Nick Brancaccio.
"I captured special moments. I've captured triumphs, I captured agony, and I've captured disasters," says Brancaccio, who has snapped more photos than he can possibly count, estimating roughly 15,000 were ultimately published either in the printed newspaper or online during his career.
The gallery exhibit, which is runs until March 2025, is a career retrospective, capturing what Brancaccio calls some of his more "relevant" photos throughout his award-winning career, but not an exhaustive collection, by any means.
It was curated with the help of Craig Capacchione, a museum coordinator at Chimczuk Museum.
"I'm proud of all my work. I'm proud that somehow, I have influenced some people in the general public," he says. "I still can't get my head around those feelings."
FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS...
Brancaccio was bitten by the journalism bug very early in life.
As a young boy, Brancaccio delivered newspapers in his downtown neighbourhood, which helped him catch his bearings and learn about the community and its people.
He distinctly remembers a husband and wife, who as a hobby, sat at their backyard picnic table listening to the emergency scanners. Brancaccio, along with his brothers and friends would hang out with the couple, listening for breaking news.
"And then if there was something nearby that we wanted to chase – a real exciting police, ambulance or fire call – we'd hop on our bikes and actually go chase it," Brancaccio recalls. "We weren't after anything other than the excitement of chasing the call.
Fast forward a decade, and freshly graduated from W.D. Lowe Secondary School, Brancaccio enrolled in Human Kinetics at the University of Windsor. After a few years of studies, he came to realize his passion was not in kinesiology or geography, but rather in research, digging for facts and uprooting details.
"Everyone's life has a few meanders," says Brancaccio, who decided to pursue his passion by switching to the Journalism program at St. Clair College. "It was a great little twist."
He was able to transfer some credits and dug his heels into the craft alongside his new classmates and professors in 1979.
"I fell in love with photography at St. Clair College. It was a great move on my part," recalls Brancaccio, who credits one teacher in particular, Alton Trotter, with helping him harness his skills. "With him and other people there in the Journalism program, they really got me going."
Brancaccio said the program was instrumental in enhancing his skillset, developing a keen eye for composure, and sharpening his abilities in the dark room, where negatives were developed from film.
It was in the dark room at St. Clair where another important influence in Brancaccio's professional life took notice of his abilities.
Bill Bishop was the photo editor at The Windsor Star in the 1980s, but also taught part-time in the Journalism program. He brought Brancaccio on as a summer reporter at The Star in 1980.
"St. Clair College was really a launching pad for me," says Brancaccio.
Brancaccio would ultimately graduate in 1981 but didn't have to hunt too hard for a job, both feet already firmly planted in the door at the local paper.
Before Brancaccio even had a chance to get his diploma, a position came open in the photo department at The Windsor Star. Bill Bishop tapped Brancaccio with an opportunity that would bring one of his early passions full circle.
"He said, ‘Nick, instead of, you know, being a reporter for the summer, why don't you come into the photo department?'" Brancaccio says, noting it was a gig on the overnight shift. His first task was to develop all the film taken throughout the day, get the negatives and pass them along to the photo editor's desk. He would also get to jump out and take pictures if the scanner went off.
That assignment may seem off-putting to some, but for the budding photo buff, it was "a great time to chase stuff again."
Brancaccio never looked back.
...TO AN AWARD-WINNING CAREER
After a career which spanned four-plus decades, it was difficult for Brancaccio to whittle down his collection of photographs into just 50 for the art gallery exhibit, which tells a story of his career, through other people's lives.
"It's just the vastness of all the work. It's hard just to funnel it down, even to the 50," says Brancaccio.
What made it somewhat easier was the fact that Brancaccio has been nominated for more than 35 photojournalism awards during his illustrious career. He took home 13 first place finishes at the Ontario Newspaper awards, he won the Canadian Press Picture of the Month and even won a National Newspaper Award for spot news photography in 1991.
"The award-winners kind of come to the top, and then you have to go digging," Brancaccio says.
His national newspaper award, equivalent to a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, was for taking a photo of a man who was on fire and dangling upside down from a third-floor apartment building window.
"I had to record the tragic event," Brancaccio said at the time to The Windsor Star.
His collection at the exhibit contains more than just tragedy, also capturing moments of joy and glory in the community and at various sports venues.
One of his fondest professional memories happened on Sept. 18, 1984, when the Detroit Tigers clinched the American League East pennant against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Brancaccio, very new to the job, had the assignment to cover the game and captured the mayhem that unfolded after the winning strikeout. Players rushed the field, and shortly after, fans followed suit, hopping walls, and breaking down fences to join the celebration. A young Brancaccio waded into the bedlam to capture the moment.
"I went out there to centre field, got some good photos. I had eight photographs of the Tigers' game in The Star the next day, which is unheard of," Brancaccio recalls, including a very special one, which landed on the front page.
"The players get kind of excited, and rightfully so," says Brancaccio, who says one of those roused players nicked head coach Sparky Anderson on the head with a champagne bottle, leaving a stream of blood and champagne down the skipper's face. Of course, Brancaccio was there in the dressing room to capture that one, too.
"That's something you'll remember the rest of your life. It's giving me be chill bumps right now just talking about it," says Brancaccio, who after snapping the photos still had to drive back across the border and develop the photos to make the next days' print edition.
Some would consider this job a dream job, but Brancaccio has a more pragmatic reflection of his past profession.
"I never thought of it as a dream, or anything like that, because it was work for me," he says. "It was just a job. But you know what? I was getting paid to do a service, and I was going to give it 100 per cent."
Brancaccio wasn't just good at what he did, he was also the Cal Ripken Jr. of The Windsor Star Newsroom. The photojournalism ironman took fewer than 10 sick days off during his 41-year-career, and that's including the three days he took when he literally broke his back playing ice hockey.
He took a "stinger" during a play on the ice and couldn’t feel his extremities, carted off by ambulance. He was back out taking photos later that week, albeit, in immense pain. He would later learn that he had a break in his thoracic vertebrate, not the cervical spine where he was x-rayed.
Brancaccio's colleagues give nothing but praise to the long-time photographer for his longevity, attention to detail and love for his community.
"Nick Brancaccio's amazing exhibit shows a breadth of work only possible by a talented photographer documenting his community over four decades," says Windsor Star managing editor Craig Pearson. "Nick is a pro, and it shows. His collection offers a wide range, from portraits and feature photos to sports and spot news. Sometimes it's amusing, sometimes unflinching, but always it gives viewers a glimpse of the top-notch photojournalism that The Windsor Star regularly produces."
Looking back at his career, Brancaccio says he wouldn't change a thing.
"I think the decision I made to go to St. Clair College, and the fact that they were so accepting, they knew I had talent," says Brancaccio.
"And, of course, at St. Clair, I got to meet my wife, who was taking marketing at the time," he says, an enduring relationship which led to four children and seven grandkids.
In 2009, Brancaccio was honoured as an alumnus of distinction at St. Clair College, a recognition he holds very close to his heart.
"That was a great honor, and still is," he says.
Brancaccio is enjoying retirement, giving him more time with his growing family, but is always looking to find relevance. He's hoping his exhibit will stand the test of time, and potentially inspire others, offering these words of advice to students in the field of photojournalism:
"You can read every book you want. You can listen to every lecture. You can go to every class, but unless you go out there with your own feet and experience it, it will stick after you do it, time after time after time," says Brancaccio, who at 67 still has 20/20 vision in his shooting eye.
"Take a lot of photos, learn from every photo you take, and take time to review all your photos."
"You learn from the first day that you're working right to the last day."
