75 Years of Photos by the Figges
May 18, 2020 | Trojan Athletic Fund, Features
Figge Photography has been standing for 75 years now.Â
It's a boutique studio in Newport Beach, Calif. built by USC alumni and still run by Trojans. Between capturing weddings, engagements, family portraits and graduating seniors, the Figge family shoots USC staff and student-athlete headshots.Â
"It's our way of giving back," said Leslie Figge, who currently runs Figge Photography.Â
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The business has stayed in the family and been passed down, along with a passion for USC. Bill and Melba Figge, the studio's late founders, met at USC in the 1940s. After Bill was a combat photographer during World War II, he and his wife began offering their services for free to USC sorority girls for their social events. When those same girls eventually got married, they hired Bill and Melba.
Figge Photography took off in the mid-60s, shooting weddings and Playboy covers and centerfolds. They offered to shoot portraits for the USC football team and staff. Once the program hired Barbara Hedges, former USC Women's Athletics Administrator and pioneer of women's sports at USC, following Title IX in 1973, Melba and her daughter, Leslie, joined the Board of the Women of Troy and began shooting the women's teams.Â
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They would put makeup on the girls and take photos in uniform before the athletes changed into dresses to take funny photos around campus. To this day, Leslie says that her favorite part of working with USC Athletics is getting to know the student-athletes.Â
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"I have so much respect for them, and how they're disciplined, managing that and school," Leslie said. "It's really neat to have an inside look."
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Following Bill's death in 1976, the Figges moved their studio from Glendale to Newport Beach. Moving to Newport had always been a goal for them, and when Bill became ill with cancer at the end of Leslie's sophomore year at USC, she took a leave of absence to help her mother with the studio. Even though the co-owner and lead photographer had died, the remaining Figges kept the business booming, and Leslie never looked back.Â
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Through all the years involved with the athletic department, Melba built close relationships with athletic directors and coaches who had them shoot their daughters' weddings and invited them to away football games. Leslie and her brother, Greg, grew up running around the studio on weekdays and cheering for the Trojans on the weekends. The family has had season tickets for as long as Leslie can remember, and she continues on that tradition today.Â
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"When you go to [USC], you never leave. That's how I was raised, and that's how I really do feel," Leslie said.Â
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Her niece, Erika Figge, played water polo at USC from 2004-07 and earned All-American honors. This forever tied the family to water polo, the Figges' favorite team at USC and the reason they drive up twice a year to photograph the men's and women's water polo teams along, with any new Athletics staff member who needs a headshot. Leslie can't begin to count the number of USC water polo weddings Figge Photography has done throughout the years.Â
"I'm just so proud of my parents and what they started," Leslie said.Â
Many of Figge Photography's clients return year after year for new photos, some they have been shooting every year for 45 years. Leslie considers a lot of clients family, and USC Athletics is no exception.
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