Today we’d like to introduce you to Denice Woller
Hi Denice, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up on a dairy farm in South Dakota, in the days of film photography. It wasn’t practical, or economical to take a lot of photos, but my mother still took her fair share and she became my inspiration. She transferred her enrollment in correspondence classes to the New York School of Photography to me while I was in 8th grade because she lacked the time or money to complete the course. Turns out that once I got to high school, that became my problem too and I forfeited being the youngest enrolled student there.
However, I was still always the one known for being the picture taker in high school and college. With my photojournalism scholarship and position as yearbook editor at Bethany Lutheran College (where I have now taught photography/journalism for over 2 decades) I gained enough tactile examples of work that I was hired as the editor of my hometown newspaper after graduation with only an AA degree. It was while I worked at the Winner Advocate I realized my mom had been right, I could make a living documenting the lives of people with photography.
I married my husband Eric and we moved to Bozeman, MT where we could both finish our degrees. While working on my Media and Theater Art degree I was Editor-in-Chief of the MSU Exponent, and also was given the most amazing job of documenting farms in the Gallatin Valley. These experiences still serve me to this day. Following graduation we returned from the mountains to Mankato, MN to teach at Bethany and start our family. It wasn’t until after our first child came along that I honestly thought about having a photo studio. I built it in the basement of our home and also started graduate school down the road at Minnesota State Mankato for my MA in photography when our oldest was one. Our second child was born in the middle of grad school, and I proceeded to have four kids within five years. Life didn’t stop, and with my studio I found myself doing all types of photography. You name it, I photographed it. It is still fabulous to be able to share those examples with my students, but after having some health problems, and moving to a farm that I barely had time to enjoy, I questioned why I wasn’t making the portraiture that I love the most my priority. Photographing farmers and ranchers had been what convinced me to be a photographer in the first place, but I had just forgotten! With that decision I niched down to Legacy and High School Senior portraiture. It was the best business, and health, decision I could have ever made.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not every road is completely smooth, but I truly believe that thanks to God everything happens for a reason. My dad died when I was 19. I almost didn’t go back to college so I could help my mother and brother on our dairy farm. Two weeks before classes were to start my mom sat me down at the kitchen table and informed me that she and my brother would figure things out and that I had to go back for one more year. Within that year I edited the yearbook that got me my pivotal job, but most importantly I met my husband who I have now been married to for nearly 26 years. Eric and my mom have always been my biggest cheerleaders.
I don’t have photos of my dad working on our dairy farm. When you live on a farm, it is your life. You don’t think about capturing images of the day to day because you are so busy just trying to make a living and survive. Even though my mom and I often took photos we didn’t think about capturing the mundane aspects of farming. It still makes me sad, but it also drives me to do what I do, and to capture those lives in agriculture so well that their families will appreciate these images of every aspect of their farm/ranch for decades to come.
It took me having health problems to realize that if I was to continue as a photographer at all I needed to focus more on doing what I love. Because of my condition I simply don’t have the energy to work nonstop anymore, so that means basically only saying yes to Legacy and High School Senior Experiences. It was quite scary to make that leap after nearly 20 years as a professional who had never had to market, but it truly has been an unbelievable transition. The joy I bring to my clients because I have captured their legacies is tremendous!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Woller Photography I specialize in high school senior portrait artistry, and documentary portraiture of hard working Americans called Legacy.
A Senior Experience is catered specifically to each high schooler and allows me to be very creative with locations, lighting, and conceptual design. It is my goal to showcase their individuality and help them to feel like rock stars with an experience they will never forget. Their final images will make them stand apart in their yearbook, yet be printed treasures their families will admire for decades. Destination opportunities and videography are additional aspects that make my studio stand apart. Clients are able to turn their senior experiences into a well documented adventure around the world and/or have an epic video of this monumental stage of their life.
A Legacy Experience is very different because it is in a documentary style. The hard working individuals who are captured during these sessions continue to go about their day while they work. To my knowledge, I am the only photographer who offers a Legacy Experience in this way. The biggest goal with this process is to capture the scenes of agriculture families, or other hard working individuals, so that their families will always have a record of what life and their livelihood is like in this time period. Those being photographed continue to work while I am hanging off the side of a tractor/horse, etc. to get the shots. Because of my experiences in agriculture it helps me to understand how to react and capture the most important elements. Each client receives a beautiful leather bound heirloom album to pass on to future generations. The death of my father helped me to realize no one is here forever and this way of life should be captured, because it is undoubtedly a legacy.
With both of these quite different perspectives I am proud to say that whoever is in front of my lens always feels comfortable, and even has fun, because I have allowed them to be authentically themselves!
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was a really shy kid, actually. Which honestly, my own children don’t believe. They even told me once that they thought I would have been too intimidating in high school to hang out with because of my confidence. That floored me, but then I realized that the mom/entrepreneur/professor/leader version of me that they have seen their entire lives would have been intimidating. I remember making a conscious effort in high school to be more outgoing, and to treat everyone equally. I simply want everyone to feel appreciated, because God created us all equally. If that makes me seem more outgoing because I talk to those who may be standing in the corner, I think that is awesome. I never want anyone to feel left out, and that is exactly why the mantra of Woller Photography is to showcase each client so that they can always ‘Be Authentically You!’
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wollerphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wollerphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wollerphotography
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/leavingyourlegacy/
Image Credits
All photos by Denice Woller of Woller Photography.
