As a photographer, there are few people in America with a prouder pedigree than Sammamish’s Barry Hartman.

His father, Bud Hartman, was one of the first people to set foot on Normandy beach during the allied invasion on June 6, 1944 – he was a camera man, and so was charged with capturing the now historic footage of the terrible event.

After he graduated from college, Barry Hartman joined his father in a photo processing and color lab business for a few years. But the desire to record his own images, to look through the lens himself, was strong.

During one winter break from college, Hartman spent a week at a photography workshop in Yosemite, Cal., under the instruction of the legendary photographer Ansel Adams. It would prove to be an influential moment. He soon left the family business to go out on his own, and he has been shooting ever since.

“People, places, events – I am fascinated by them all,” Hartman told The Reporter recently.

Beginning his career as a freelancer in Hollywood, Hartman took family portraits, headshots for aspiring actors, published school yearbooks. He documented construction sites, and watched the landscape change.

“In Los Angeles, I photographed the 1976 Academy Awards, including backstage with all the notables,” he recalled. “It was my one and only evening as a member of the paparazzi.”

In 1984 he worked at the Los Angeles Olympics.

Guided by what he calls a “spiritual journey,” Hartman relocated the Eastside of Seattle in 1990, “for new life challenges and to carry on with my photography endeavors.”

It was here that, at nearly 50 years of age, he met Linda Marie, and was married for the first and only time.

“As a bachelor for so long, I learned new meaning for the terms, flexibility, compromise, patience, humility, grace, blessings and more,” he said. Hartman was forced to draw upon those life lessons when, in 2003, Linda lost a valiant battle with breast cancer.

“Her memory and guiding influence live on,” he said.

These days Hartman uses his photography to support many community groups in Issaquah and Sammamish, including Eastside Fire and Rescue, the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce, the Issaquah Schools Foundation, and local Rotary clubs. He said it keeps him busy, and, most importantly, connected with what is happening in the area. Hartman is currently mentoring high school photography students at the Renaissance School of Art and Reasoning.

His latest project is documenting the many changes to the landscape of the Issaquah Highlands. Hartman has been given special clearance by Swedish Hospital to document the construction of the new hospital there. With a number of projects just beginning in the Highlands, his images will one day become important documents of an earlier time.

To see Hartman’s regularly updated gallery of images of the Swedish site, visit www.hartmanphotography.com/gallery/swedish