The Wise Photo Project Goes Worldwide to Photograph Sweet Wonderful Old Faces

It really started kind of small in Kenneth Wajda’s Boulder Colorado commercial portrait studio back in 2015. He advertised an open studio on Mondays in the local events listings for seniors age 70 and over to come in and get a formal portrait made at no cost, figuring that was his slowest day at the...

How I Can Afford to Make The Wise Photo Project

I photographed Margaret, a lovely 98-year-old woman last week in my studio and will gift her a framed 12x12 portrait this week. How am I able to gift photo shoots and framed portraits at no cost to seniors in The Wise Photo Project? Easy, through commissioned portraits--when people commission a portrait, they know that the...

Not Trying to Be the Fashion Police But…

I offer a free portrait session in my studio every Monday for senior citizens age 70 and over as a way of creating a formal portrait in a sea of phone snaps and because I think it's important to document them in a formal legacy portrait, photograph them looking their best. LOW RESPONSEI've been offering...

Honored to Have Made His Portrait for the Family

Sadly, Mr. Momano passed away this past Sunday. Graflex RB Super D, a 4x5 SLR I met him only once when I was out using my new-to-me (though made in the mid-1900s) Graflex RB Super D, a hand-holdable 4x5 SLR camera with a 190mm f5.6 Kodak Ektar lens. (This is the same camera that Dorothea...

Photography, Time Travel and Forgotten Memories Remembered & Relived

Photography used to be time travel. We took photographs, and then forgot them. That magic roll of film held the memory safe, tucked away in the dark to be revealed and relived at another time. A trip to the Fotomat was highly anticipated--the roll finished and developed, it offered wonderful surprises, time travel, remembering and...

“You’re Better As You Are Than You Think.”

I traveled across the U.S. last month to a photo shoot in Washington D.C. (drove so I could bring a full studio to the conference) and on the way back, I photographed my partners' Mother and brother at breakfast during a stop in Cincinnati. When I sent them the photographs, her Mother said...well, I'll let...

If You Believe in Something, Keep Going (Though You Will, Anyway!)

Those were the words I heard from someone recently, in regard to having an idea that you're passionate about, that people don't seem to be responding to.  That it's worthwhile to keep at it.  To grow it.  To find an audience, even if it's a niche audience, because what you're doing is eventually going to...

To Keep or Not Keep the Status Quo

There’s a couple next to me at the bar where I'm sitting--I'm writing at Ted's Montana Grill in Boulder.  The guy is eating his dinner in silence because his spouse is on her phone. Occasionally he picks his up, too, because he looks bored. But for the most part, he eats alone, one bite of...

DON’T ‘LIKE’ THESE PHOTOS!

I don't create photographs for likes. I make photographs that will still exist in 50 years, long after the swipe is through, through gallery and book projects. That's why I shoot on film, and make gallery-quality prints. These aren't for likes. I’m looking for two kinds of photographs to make, one for my Roy Stryker...

Why Do We Need Museums When We Have our iPads and Laptops?

It makes me sad when I think about how valuable fine art portraiture is, created on medium or large format film, and yet how few people even know what it is, let alone why they would want to order a portrait like this. The photograph above is a portrait of my Dad, sitting across from...