Photographer of the Week: Frank Pease: Day One

So begins Frank Pease week. Don't worry, I have decidely more than 7 pictures to show.

Frank Pease's photographs are featured in a book called Laporte, Indiana (you'll have to excuse me, but underlining or bold are not possible when you use blogger on a mac) by Jason Bitner of Found Magazine/Books. Bitner was traveling through the midwest and stumbled upon the American Cafe, home of thousands of Frank Pease photographs. Pease and his wife ran a photography studio together for about 40 years. When they sold the building, the new owners couldn't bear to throw out the 18,000 proof prints the Peases had left behind and began selling the photographs for 5 dollars each. Laporte, Indiana is composed of hundreds of these photographs salvaged by Bitner. Since the publication of the book, the people of Laporte have done their best to identify every subject in the photos. On www.laportebook.com, I found a group of these photographs that include details about the subject. Those are the photographs that will be featured here during Frank Pease week.


"David VanSchoyck, pictured as a toddler. Dewayne, his brother, said that David died at age 9. "We used to have our photos taken every year," says Dewayne."

I can't get over the amazing impact of this book. How proud Frank Pease would be if he were still alive that his work had been published as such an amazing social document.