My journey all started a few years ago when I found a stack of 8×10 prints buried in the basement of my Grandfather’s house. Being a photographer myself, I was immediately drawn to them, and realized that he had something special, a talent and eye for photography that I could only dream of having someday. I took the prints home and scanned them, for the sole purpose of preserving them for our family. Not too long afterwards, my grandfather, Dean expressed his desire for me to have all of his photography equipment. I knew he had a lot as he was a pack-rat and kept everything he ever owned. At some point we decided that I would also be getting his photographs so that I could preserve them as I had with the first few that I had seen. That was fine with me, it would be exciting and an honor to do so.
After looking through his photographs, slides and negatives, I began to realize that people other than family would be interested in seeing Dean’s work. It would be a shame for his work to go unnoticed to anyone other than family. I decided I would create a book of his images, which would be a tremendous amount of work, but definitely worth the effort. I was inspired, and still am, by the work of Vivian Maier and the notoriety that the project surrounding her work received through Kickstarter.
I thought I would give that a go… so, I launched a Kickstarter project.
The first couple of days of the project saw steady growth. After a week I had reached $1700 pledged, which was a good start toward the $8000 goal. Kickstarter featured the project in their newsletter and in one day the amount pledged shot up to over $6000. I am very grateful to all of the people who believe in the project and are willing to help out.
We’ve now exceeded the initial goal of $8000 which is amazing! I’m still encouraging people to pledge. In all honesty, the more that is pledged, the more time I can spend on the project meaning the faster I can get all of his images scanned and create the book. The books that will be printed for the backers who receive them will be a short-run limited edition.
I am really looking forward to diving in and seeing the rest of his work. I hope that those who see his work will appreciate it as well.
This is great! Hope we can be kept up-to-date on the progress and when this book comes out! Beautiful work!
Dean's legacy lives on! i love the simplicity and cool factor of your grandfather, thanks for sharing and inspiring me to keep shooting!
Such an Inspiration! Absolutely love it :)
I have also inherited many of my grandfathers photographs and this project inspires me to do something tangible with these great photographs and family memories.
absolutely love everything bout the parachute one. the details in the parachute is just amazing... inspiring stuff!
Man, I'm SOOOO inspired by this! Absolutely love it. It's a reminder to me that photography is such a special medium and makes me want to get out there and keep shooting. Thanks so much for sharing with us here, Matt! Really appreciate it...
This post makes me excited about photography again, and helps me recognize that I need to be shooting more than my business calls for (in a way that no other prodding has)... my work must be more than that which involves my clients. Thank you for sharing.
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