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...

Here’s To (the Gift of) Good Light

I received an email from the Chimera company the other day, a photo and video lighting company which is based here in Boulder, and they said they read had my story in the local paper about The Wise Photo Project (which you can join and I hope you do), and they wrote they would be...

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...

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...

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...

Portrait at 100

Portrait of a neighbor, at 100 years old.  Leica M2, Summarit f1.5 Lens, Kodak Tri-X Film.  The Wise Photo Project

The Wise Photo Project

I have this project I've been working on the last six months called The Wise Photo Project.  I photograph older folks who often don't have anyone taking their photo.  Most of the attention is on the kids, and as one older man once told me, "The older you get the more invisible you become."  So...