Commercial Work
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This is a sampling of my part time commercial work during the 1990s while working as an electrical design engineer at local high tech manufacturing firms, including some for whom I also did photography. I was officially in business as Krueger Photography for 11 years and contracted with eight companies. Color studio work was shot exclusively on Ektachrome EPP, most often 4 x 5 in, some medium format, and 35mm when on location. B&W was most often medium format. The transparency film originals were turned over to the customer, so the gallery pictures are almost all scans of small to medium sized halftone images in the few publications I kept as memorabilia of those days. The B&W images in the gallery are scans from 8×10 darkroom prints.
I was a better engineer than I was a photographer, but I was convenient because I was able to pick up products, set up the correct displays and return them after I was done, sometimes as soon as the next morning. While I was able to do acceptable work, for the most part I was a one-trick-pony. The Marketing Communications people I worked with in the 1990s were tasked with the challenge of doing, in-house, the catalogs and advertising that were previously contracted out, at great expense, to advertising agencies. They were enthusiastic, talented, and pleasant, while I displayed a full slate of the more unappealing character traits often associated with numerous untreated “personality difficulties”.
During the time I operated the business, I often had no photography work to do, interspersed with occasions when I had too much to do by a given deadline. Back then, everything was shot on film. Color studio work was shot exclusively on Ektachrome EPP, most often in 4 x 5 in. and some medium format. The few location shoots I did were shot on 35mm. B&W was most often medium format. I did the B&W darkroom work myself and used a local pro commercial lab for the color. The transparency film originals were turned over to the customer, so the pictures in this new Commercial Work gallery are almost all scans of small to medium sized halftone images in the few publications I kept as memorabilia of those days. The B&W images in this gallery are scans from 8×10 darkroom prints.
The world has changed since then. During those years of doing commercial work part time, I did virtually no personal photography. After closing the business, my interest in photography as a hobby returned and I began planning trips specifically for photo expeditions. I also added a dedicated studio, frame shop, and darkroom to my house. I did some work for modeling schools and a local agency as well as head shots for local theater groups. In terms of recognition, I’m about as obscure as an artist can be, but I’ve exhibited in a few local venues and had work published in a national print magazine and online by Italy’s la Repubblica. I no longer do any work for hire, nor do I market my work. Finally, realizing that digital photography is not just a passing fad like cell phones and the internet, I bought a D850 digital camera in 2024.
But, I still shoot film almost exclusively.
