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Duane Rieder is a man of many talents. He has built a thriving commercial photography business, created a museum honoring the legendary Pittsburgh Pirate Roberto Clemente, and even produced a line of his own wines.

But even a top-of-the-line photographer like Rieder has higher aspirations.

“I’ve always wanted to shoot Jack Nicholson for the cover of Rolling Stone,” the Upper St. Clair resident said.

No stranger to celebrities, Rieder has photographed many of Pittsburgh’s sports icons, from Mario Lemieux to Dejuan Blair.

A less elite group of athletes, however, gave the photographer his start in the business.

At the age of 19, Rieder moved from DuBois, PA, to Los Angeles to work at a Brockway Glass plant there.

“That changes your life, going from cow country to L.A., and that’s where I was introduced to the camera,” he said.

Rieder got involved with a local church softball league and asked to take pictures of the players. He knew next to nothing about photography, so he accepted an offer of help from a 14-year-old teammate who already had his own darkroom.

“When I saw the first print come up in the developer, I was like ‘Oh my God,’” he said.

The next day he bought his first camera.

Rieder eventually landed at the Art Institute to study his art in greater detail. After receiving two local job offers within hours or receiving his diploma, he never made it back to California.

“The work never stopped for about seven years. That was the heyday for advertising,” Rieder said.

Now, more than 20 years later, Rieder remains one of Pittsburgh’s most accomplished and sought-after photo-graphers. His work is seen on billboards and magazine covers, hockey cards and media guides.

He has set up shop in Engine House 25, near the intersection of Penn Avenue and Butler Street in Lawrenceville. Built in 1896, the building had been empty since 1970 before Rieder and his then-business partner Frank Walsh bought it in 1995.

Rieder was attracted to the space because it had no columns, offering the ideal space for the large sets needed by his commercial clients at the time.

While the building was intended solely to serve as photography studio space, it has evolved in its purpose. It now houses the most extensive museum dedicated to a single professional baseball player.

In the mid-1990’s, Rieder worked on a calendar project honoring Clemente. He became acquainted with the Clemente family and worked on other projects for them in the years that followed.

After earning the family’s trust, Rieder asked Vera Clemente if he could bring back to Pittsburgh all of the photos that her husband had collected during his playing days. She agreed, and the seeds for the museum were planted.

“I made myself the Clemente archivist and just started working really hard on my negatives and transparencies and original press prints,“ Rieder said. He estimates that he has 1,000 negatives and 1,000 original press photos.

The collection also features two of Clemente’s gold gloves, a silver bat that he received for winning the batting title in 1961, signed original contracts, one of the few pairs of his game-worn cleats still in existence and a handful of Clemente’s personal effects, such as a suit, a health insurance card and his baseball union card.

The museum is open to the public by appointment, and Rieder is happy to provide guided tours for small groups.

Another space in the building that has been transformed is the basement that used to serve as a smaller studio and prop storage room but has since been taken over by barrels and bottles of wine.

“It grew from just one barrel into...Well, I haven’t counted lately,” Rieder said, estimating that at least 50 barrels are scattered throughout the space.

Rieder’s foray into wine began as a hobby seventeen years ago when he learned the craft from a Bloomfield neighbor who made wine.

Rieder makes a mean cabernet and has ventured into several other reds including zinfandel, syrah, and carmenere. He also has a Chardonnay currently “brewing.” His grapes are shipped in from a number of Sonoma vineyards, including one that coincidentally named Hook & Ladder, and he also recently began using zinfandel grapes from California’s Lodi Valley, the hot new place for wine.

In the late 90’s when Web sites were still somewhat of a novelty, Rieder first gave the wine away to promote his own Internet presence. He used his photos on the labels.

After getting a liquor license this winter, Rieder now can sell his eh25 wine directly to consumers. It will also be added to the wine list at the Strip District restaurant Cioppino.

Fans of the product include wine connoisseurs like actor David Conrad and Lemieux, who bought an entire barrel the first time they tasted it.

From snapping shots of a recreational softball team to photographing Lemieux for hockey cards, Rieder’s career has taken him places he never could have imagined. He curates a museum and created a line of wines. And he’s nowhere near done exploring new endeavors.

That Nicholson cover could still happen, after all.

More information about Duane Rieder can be found at www.riederphotography.com