More Than a Photographer
Why me; why you…
People sometimes ask me how I stay enthusiastic after photographing people for over forty years.
The truth is…
I don’t have to try.
The moment I pick up a camera something changes.
It’s like a spotlight hits me and I take the stage as a well rehearsed, confident alter ego version of myself.
I disappear and allow something else to channel through me.
It’s the one who loves making people laugh, helping nervous teenagers relax, and watching someone morph into a more confident version of themselves.
That transformation makes me giddy by the end of a portrait session.
I don’t have to go to work.
I GET to go to work.
The seniors who check the questionnaire:
“I really DON’T want to be here (Mom is making me!)”
Those are my people.
Because by the end of the session they’re usually right there with me…
not wanting it to end.
How I Got Here
Photography wasn’t my plan.
More like destiny.
My parents, Ken and Margaret, started KenMar Studio right around the time I was born. Our living room was the camera room, the darkroom was in the basement. I thought every family lived that way.
After barely making it out of high school, I drifted around the country and Mexico, worked in paper mills, factories, painted houses. I learned that I couldn’t work for the man. I would have to BE the man.
I was three years into college studying philosophy, psychology, music, and the arts when destiny knocked.
My dad and his assistant were injured in a car accident and needed help at the studio.
I needed a summer job.
I figured, I can do that. And eventually came to realize, I really CAN do that. It was waiting for me! After all, my last name, “Kunst” it means artist!
I started feeling the light.
The way it wraps itself around a face.
The way it quietly directs your eye.
The way it changes how we feel about someone.
Once I saw that…
I couldn’t unsee it.
Building KenMar
Debbie and I eventually bought the studio from my parents and built the place we’d always wished existed.
Over the last twenty-five years we’ve created one of Wisconsin’s largest dedicated portrait studios, complete with a private two-acre photo park, gardens, winding paths, a stream, indoor sets, props, backgrounds. A monument dedicated to intentional portrait photography.
I moved hundreds of tons of rock.
We planted trees that took years to mature.
Everything here was designed for one purpose:
To remove stress from portrait day.
No worrying about the weather.
No changing clothes in a gas station restroom.
No spending half the day driving from one crowded park to another.
When people walk through the front door, look around, and quietly say,
“Wow…”
I know we’ve done our job.
Why I Still Love This
Over the years I’ve been fortunate to spend my life photographing joy.
Senior year.
Growing families.
New careers.
Celebrations.
Milestones.
The moments that become tomorrow’s favorite memories.
I like to think I preserve future nostalgia.
I love being at KenMar, walking through the gardens after everyone has gone home.
I love seeing how the light changes with the seasons.
I love finding one more little improvement that makes the experience even better for the next family that walks through our doors.
This isn’t just where I work.
It’s where I belong.
Outside the Studio
Outside the studio I’m still that interrupted philosophy student.
I’m endlessly curious about why people believe what they believe and behave the way they do. I try to look at the world through the widest possible lens—a lens so wide that it eventually wraps around behind me and reminds me that I’m part of the picture too.
Music is another passion.
The ponytail probably helps maintain my fantasy that I’m an aging rock star, so every other week I host a jam session with twenty or so “living room musicians” and “shower singers.”
Nobody’s getting a record deal.
Everybody leaves smiling.
That seems like time well spent.
Awards… and the One That Matters Most
I’ve been fortunate to receive recognition from my peers, including Photographer of the Year, Best of Show, People’s Choice, Photographer’s Choice, Certified Master Photographer, and more “Best of the Valley” awards than all other local portrait photographers combined.
I’m grateful for every one of them.
But the recognition that means the most comes from hearing someone say,
“That was so much easier—and so much more fun—than we expected.”
Because that’s what I’ve been trying to create all along.
