Historic Charlotte
An illustrated history of the City of Charlotte and the Mecklenburg County area, paired with the histories of companies, families and organizations that make the region great.
An illustrated history of the City of Charlotte and the Mecklenburg County area, paired with the histories of companies, families and organizations that make the region great.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
PCA<br />
INTERNATIONAL<br />
✧<br />
Above: PCA International’s corporate<br />
headquarters.<br />
Below: A photographer in session.<br />
HISTORIC CHARLOTTE<br />
162<br />
Walk the halls of the Customer Support<br />
Center of PCA International, Inc. in Matthews.<br />
On either wall at eye-level is a row of special<br />
photographic portraits. The framed images are<br />
of loved ones of PCA employees in individual<br />
and group poses. A sleeping newborn. A<br />
playful pair of twins. Three generations of<br />
Johnstons. And so on. The portraits serve as a<br />
daily reminder of what PCA does best and<br />
more often than any other company in North<br />
America: create memories. More than one<br />
hundred million memories each year.<br />
What began modestly as a traveling<br />
portrait studio promotion in one S. S. Kresge<br />
store is now a network of more than 2,500<br />
retail photographic studio locations, serving<br />
all fifty states, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto<br />
Rico. While compelling, that’s only part of the<br />
ever-developing PCA story.<br />
Since its founding in 1967 as Photo<br />
Corporation of America, the company has<br />
steadily and systematically refined the art and<br />
science of portrait photography. A camera<br />
designed by founder Bud Davis was<br />
instrumental in launching the industry. The<br />
“Framatic” single-lens reflex camera enabled<br />
photographers to shoot up to five hundred<br />
exposures between rolls of film. This<br />
introduced an operational efficiency that has<br />
since become a PCA hallmark.<br />
Through the years, PCA has developed<br />
proprietary systems and processes that have<br />
become standard for the industry. Today, the<br />
company holds patents on technical innovations<br />
that range from protective camera housing<br />
to photo-processing techniques. Year in<br />
and year out, PCA made incremental<br />
improvements to the portrait studio concept:<br />
optimizing retail space, perfecting the promotional<br />
message, improving delivery, maximizing<br />
the print configuration, and more.<br />
Then, during the 1990s, PCA began an<br />
association with fast-growing Wal-Mart,<br />
initially at stores in Canada. In 1997 the<br />
relationship grew when PCA acquired<br />
American Studios, a major Wal-Mart provider.<br />
As the relationship proved mutually beneficial,<br />
it led to an exclusive arrangement. Today, PCA<br />
operates in more than twenty-five hundred
Change language