When Rick Giammaria, senior staff photographer, was asked to curate a retrospective of his work for our Edison Place Gallery this fall, we knew he had plenty of choices. Over his 35-year career, Rick has shot thousands of photos for Pepco and our sister utilities, Atlantic City Electric and Delmarva Power. His challenge was finding an organizing theme to showcase some of his favorite photos. “As I started to gather these images, a theme emerged, which was the way the men and women of our company responded to crisis situations,” he says.
Rick’s “35-Year Retrospective,” which opened in mid-November, will be on display through Dec. 31. Many of the 50 photos are organized around four Pepco emergencies that he covered over the past 3½ decades. Throughout the exhibit, a reoccurring emergency is captured in a series of eye-catching photos that show utility employees in the field restoring customers’ power after catastrophic storms, sometimes in harsh and dangerous conditions.
One happened in 2022 – on the Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend – when a small plane crashed into a Pepco transmission tower in Maryland, leaving 85,000 residents without power and two injured inside the crumpled plane dangling from the tower 100 feet above ground.
“These employees, and also leadership, stepped up, took responsibility, and did the right thing in each situation.”
Rick, a Herkimer, N.Y. native and a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, joined Pepco in 1989 as a photo assistant. Today, he is the only photographer for Pepco and our sister utilities. “Pepco always saw the value of photography and thank God they did because it’s kept me employed for 35 years,” he says.
One of Rick’s most dramatic photos was shot the night of the plane crash in Maryland. Racing from his home in Fairfax County, Virginia to the accident scene in full protective gear, Rick asked police at the entrance where the command center was. Hearing only the officer’s hesitation, he shouted, “Never mind, I’ll find it,” and made his way to the foot of the tower.
His initiative paid off when he captured first responders and Pepco contract workers conferring about the forthcoming safe extraction of the injured pilot and passenger trapped inside the plane caught on the tower.
For Rick, that shot and many others are testaments to the dedication of his colleagues. “These guys are professionals. They know what they’re doing. They’re out doing hard work in all kinds of weather. I respect them.”
Those who know Rick say similar things about him. “He makes everyone feel like part of the family,” says Jerry R. Williford Jr., president of Local 1900 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union. Pepco employees, including Rick, are represented by IBEW Local 1900.
Rhonda Ellis was a senior manager at Pepco Holdings when she curated Pepco’s history room on the ninth floor of its headquarters. The room includes an archive of Pepco photos dating back a century. Now retired, Ellis says, “Rick’s professionalism made my life so much better.”
“Rick never missed anything important in all his years at Pepco,” recalls Tyler Anthony, president and CEO of Pepco Holdings. On top of that, he is also easy to work with. “Rick has this amazing personality that brings out the best in you in very stressful times,” Anthony says.