Unique Photo

Unique Photo

The Unique Photo Superstore in Fairfield, New Jersey.
Type	Private company
Industry	Photography Retail Education
Founded	1947 (1947) (69 years ago)
Founder	Bernard and Harriet Sweetwood [1]
Headquarters	Fairfield, New Jersey, United States
Number of locations	1
Area served	United States
Key people	Jonathan Sweetwood Alexander Sweetwood (President) [2]
Products	Cameras Film Lighting Printing & Scanning Audio & Video Mobile & Electronics
Number of employees	51-200
Website	https://www.uniquephoto.com/

Unique Photo is New Jersey's only Camera and Video Superstore, located at 123 US Hwy 46 (West) in Fairfield, NJ. It is a family owned business dating back to 1947 and now carries over 20,000 products.^[3]

History

Harriet Sweetwood, Co-Founder of Unique Photo.

The company started with Bernard and Harriet Sweetwood who opened a small photographic supply outlet in Brooklyn in 1947. Soon after, they opened over 20 retail outlets in department stores across New Jersey and then the Hoboken Camera Center in the 1950s. In the 1980s, Jonathan and Matthew Sweetwood took over the daily operations. On February 13, 2008, Unique Photo announced that their Florham Park, New Jersey location on Vreeland Road would be moving 8 miles away to the Fairfield, NJ superstore on Route 46 that exists today. The Fairfield, NJ superstore opened for business on February 18, 2008. Alexander Sweetwood became the third generation to join the company having graduated with an MBA from Montclair State University.^[4] In October 2015, Alexander Sweetwood was named President of Unique Photo.^[5]

Unique Photo's 1997-2007 location.

Unique Photo was known as the Hoboken Camera Store in Hoboken, New Jersey in the 1950s.

Operation

Unique Photo runs both an online operation and an in-store operation. Their Fairfield, NJ superstore is a 50,000 square foot facility equipped with a multimedia classroom, a large rental equipment program, camera trade-in program, and a well-known professional photo lab. The facility also has a coffee bar, WiFi lounge, and meeting space. Unique Photo has a highly photographically-trained sales staff and offers free technical support.^[6]

Unique Photo runs a photography education program called Unique University. Unique University offers a full curriculum of seminars and classes which range from beginner to expert and are run daily.

Unique University

Unique University's technical classes include such topics as basic D-SLR photography, D-SLR video, lighting techniques, Adobe Photoshop, Elements and Lightroom, composition, editing and printing, wedding photography, HDR photography, and working with speedlites. Unique University also offers one-on-one personalized instruction. Famous speakers and photographers have included Lindsay Adler, Will Crockett, Rick Sammon, Tyler Stableford, Art Wolfe, Erin Manning, and Michael Yamashita.^[7][8]

Film

In March 2009, it was mentioned that Unique Photo is the largest film supplier in the United States. On March 30, 2009, Unique Photo announced that it had received the very last shipment of Polaroid film ever made.^[9]

Recognition

Unique Photo was awarded the "2013 Dealer of the Year" by Digital Imaging Reporter.^[10]

Lawsuit

On September 17, 2013, Unique Photo filed a lawsuit on Unique Photo Deals USA, LLC.^[11][12] This was done because Unique Photo Deals USA agreed to cease using the similar name in February 2013, including operating on Amazon and surrendering UniquePhotoDealsUSA.com to Unique Photo, Inc., but still continued using the name elsewhere.^[13]

References