Making a Photographic Difference

Legacies. Making a mark on the world. The reason for being here. The point. What's yours? Mine's obvious to me. Like Eugene Atget's goal of documenting old Paris before it changed in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which he knew was his life's goal, even if no one else knew about it while he...

The Camera as a Powerful Tool

I believe there is power in photography. When I document ordinary people doing ordinary things for the Roy Stryker photo project, I do it because I believe it has the power to change the world. Its goal is to "Introduce America to Americans" and show people in different parts of the country what we all...

Photographic Life Goals, Making Wise Portraits and Losing Margaret

I have big dreams for my life, my creativity and my photography. I really do live for photography and believe it can make a difference in the world and in the lives of families--like when I photograph seniors for The Wise Photo Project, it does change their world. Those photographs aren't just another family portrait...

The Wise Photo Project in Local News (Or How I’m Changing The World)

A story about The Wise Photo Project ran in today’s Longmont Leader, a local news source in Boulder County Colorado. As noted in the article, the project seeks other photographers, maybe you, to contribute to it. Support The Shows Want to support my shows? You can, just visit this link at Paypal, or go to...

The Wise Photo Project Expands

Big news. I've had several people contact me about creating portraits for The Wise Photo Project now that I've announced I've opened it up to photographers everywhere. And today I see that just that has happened. There were two photographs made and posted on our Facebook group page by photographer Mark Smith working in Aurora...

Mr. Rogers, Mary Ellen Mark and Me

I was listening to a really good podcast today called Finding Fred, which is about the way Fred Rogers made his show back in the 1960s. And on The Candid Frame podcast, Mary Ellen Mark was interviewed by Ibarionex Perello. Both are people I can relate to because both did things the way they did...

Adding a Chair to the Portrait Studio

For The Wise Photo Project, I've photographed people either standing or sitting on a red Victorian couch in my studio. So, when it became time to add a chair, I looked to Berenice Abbott for inspiration--she had a favorite chair that she posed people in and so, I went out looking for something similar, something...

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...