WHY I CREATE LEGACY PORTRAITS

I create artful monochrome studio portraits and magazine-style environmental portraits using digital cameras and real black and white film to create archival prints of the most important people in our families—our grandparents and great-grandparents.

These legacy portraits, printed and framed, will last for generations and are experienced on a daily basis in the family's home, on their walls. A real photographs is more meaningful than a computer full of digital snapshots, images stored on hard drives somewhere, or buried in a phone.

Pixels are good for sharing, for note-taking, for quick phone snaps and social media posts, but they're forgotten. Prints are for preservation.

This is my photo documentary, a project close to my heart and for the community, making portraits of seniors of all ages living at their homes and at senior facilities.

It’s important that seniors know that even at an advanced age, they are valuable and they should be documented and celebrated, and their photograph needs to be made. They’ve reached a huge milestone, having lived a good long life. I seek to document it.

I bring a background and lights. I set up a small studio so they look their best. The senior centers make it a big deal—they announce the session times and give them a time to shine, to dress up and look their sharpest. It's a big deal to be a big deal.

There’s no cost—these portrait sessions are scheduled around my commercial work. Each senior get a print, too. It’s a personal project to make photos of the most important subject that is often overlooked or left out of photographs as they advance in age—certainly not dressed up for a formal photograph.

This is a project about documenting our senior citizens' wonderful faces for future generations to know and remember them, to understand who their ancestors were. Family photographs are historic photographs, and there won't be any if, as futurists predict, the photographs of today are lost to computer failures and obsolescence.

These beautiful faces will last because their photograph is printed--that's the key to making sure our seniors' photographs aren't lost to a digital dark age.

Activities Directors and Program Coordinators, please call me to get on your schedule. I am photographing at other area senior facilities, too, so I need to work your senior community's session into my calendar.

Shoots are available in Denver, Boulder, as well as in Los Angeles and throughout southern California.

I also schedule shoots throughout the U.S. when I am traveling to various cities on commercial/advertising shoots.

ABOUT ME
Kenneth Wajda

CONTACT ME
Email info@kennethwajda.com
Phone: 720.982.9237

CONNECT WITH ME
Facebook
LinkedIn

ACTUAL QUOTES FROM SENIORS

"No one's asked to take my picture in...I can't tell you how long."

"The last time I had a photo done was at my wedding, in 1957."

“I have to tell others how wonderful that was.”

“He made me feel safe.”

“I was nervous about having my picture taken, but he made it very comfortable.”

“I have to tell other people about him. He’s wonderful!”

I've just completed a portrait session at the Longmont Senior Center (Colorado), where I worked with Kari Grotting, Seniors Recreation Program Supervisor, to schedule the photo sessions and we had over 80 people come out for a portrait.

Kari: "The Wise Photo Project has been one of the highlights for me at the senior center. When I first saw Kenneth’s photos, I was reminded of Rembrandt and how his art evolved over the years to show and express appreciation for people as they age. To me, the face is a canvas of wisdom and personality – sometimes through the eyes, sometimes through a smile, sometimes in the lines. Kenneth has the talent for capturing those features and presenting tastefully and artfully through his photographs.

"I was wondering how many people would want to have their photo taken, but we had more than 80 people show up. They said they came because they were impressed by the quality of Kenneth’s photos or because a friend recommended him. Every person left the photoshoot smiling.

"I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with Kenneth. He is the ultimate professional – kind, organized, talented. And, most of all, his respect for people is obvious in how he treats everyone. You can trust him with those you care about."

“Seeing other pictures he has taken made me take a chance.”

“He is so respectful and kind.”

“Thank you for bringing him here.”

“Thank you for setting this up.”

“He is so generous.”

“Who else is so kind to seniors?!”

There are plenty of photographers making portraits of young people. But where are the seniors? Our grandparents? Why is no one photographing the elderly? They used to be revered as our wise elders. Now, youth is so valued, few photographs are being made of them.

That's why I started The Wise Photo Project.

In-between my commercial shoots, I work with senior centers across the U.S. and bring a portable studio to create beautiful legacy portraits of their senior citizens, to celebrate the seniors' beautiful faces, and to gift the family with a priceless portrait of their family's patriarch and matriarch.

I don't charge for my shooting time. A 5x7 print is also gifted to each senior at a gallery show scheduled approximately one month after the shoot.

Seniors get beautiful portraits that will last in their families for generations to come.

Additional prints are available—that is the only optional cost to the family if more prints are desired. I don't do this for the print sales (though I am happy when family members want prints for their homes). I do this because without me creating the studio and gifting the time and making portraits, these photographs wouldn't exist.

TOP