North Light Studio & Gallery: Old Traditions, New Technologies

IRONWOOD, MI - Thursday, January 24, 2008 - Gerard Lauzon is a native of Ironwood, Michigan. He was born and raised here, and he never left! His passion is photography. Today I visited with Gerard and he shared some thoughts with me about his photography business and being in business in Ironwood.

Gerard's first paying photography job was as a part-timer with the Iron County Miner in Hurley, when he was sixteen years old. He's been a photographer ever since.

As a senior in high school he did an internship with the Ironwood Daily Globe. He stayed on with the Globe for over sixteen years.

In June of 1988, he opened his own studio, the North Light Photography. The building at 124 East Aurora Street was originally the (Viking) Singer Sewing Machine Store. It was also the home of Santini Gifts at one time, and was a women's clothing store, the Velvet Hanger, just before Lauzon purchased it. Prior to opening his own business he was working out of his house shooting weddings, portraits and nature photography. He's always done nature photography and used to sell it in a few different stores in the area.

How did Gerard develop an interest in photography? As a young child he always loved taking pictures with the family camera. In addition, his brother-in-law, while he was still dating his sister, was a photographer in the Air Force. He used to bring home his photography equipment, and Gerard was always fascinated by it.

Lauzon explained that there are schools and places to learn photography, but he is basically self-taught. He pointed out, however, that the late Jerry Kinnunen was very helpful to him.

Gerard said he likes living in Ironwood. "I like living here a lot. I mean, there are things we don't have, but I really like the small town, easy going lifestyle, and I really like the natural beauty that we have around us with the lake and the waterfalls, and the different terrain. I think it's a great place... a great place to have a family!"

His photography business will never make him rich, Lauzon said, but he pays his bills and is able to provide for his family, and that's what's important to him. Originally, Lauzon said, everything was 35M traditional photography, but times have changed. Nearly all of his work is now done digitally. His lab still develops his images in a rather traditional way, but gone are the days of negatives!

The North Light Studio is primarily a portrait studio. Wedding photography and high school senior portrait photography are the largest part of the business. According to Lauzon, he also does a lot of family portraits and children's portraits. In addition, he sells nature photos that he takes, but that is more of a sideline. "I don't even get out to the woods as much as I used to and as much as I'd like, because I'm busy doing the people photography, the portraits." Lauzon said.

Gerard pointed out that there is some local competition to his Ironwood photography business. "Kenny's still there. I'm not sure how much he does, or how much he wants to, I really don't know!" he said. And there is Cedar Creek Photography in Bessemer as well as a few area photographers that work out of their homes.

Asked if he had it to do all over again, would he go back into photography, Gerard replied, "That's an excellent question. I don't know, I'd would definitely want to be a photographer. Where that would take me if I went through another life, I'm not sure. I mean, there's so much of photography that I'm interested in. When I was younger, I was really interested in sports photography and I really wanted to get into that field. And it just didn't pan out. It just kind of grew into this. And it was just kind of like the next step. I was always the next step. So it kind of fell into place for me. I don't know. It's hard to say!"

Lauzon said Downtown Ironwood is a nice historical shopping place, with small businesses and it's more personal. He likes the typical small town family feel you just don't get in larger stores. He said its almost a family atmosphere. Everybody knows everybody. People help each other. "It's really a nice environment to be in, I think!" said Gerard.

Gerard praised the City of Ironwood, "They're definitely taking strides in the right direction." He points out that there have been some major improvements over the years. Our streets and sidewalks, according to Lauzon, are in great shape in the Downtown. He said the lighting downtown when he first located here ten years ago was not good. He said there has been a vast improvement in Downtown lighting over the past few years. He believes that parking can be an issue at times, especially for the busier businesses in town. Otherwise, he said, "I'm not really disappointed with anything!"

He doesn't believe Wal-Mart, Walgreens, or any of the highway developments will have any significant impact on his business. Wal-Marts typically offer low-cost, high-volume portraits and Gerard believes there's a market for them here. "I try to offer something different than that, and something that's more meaningful, more of a keepsake than that." Gerard said.

"Traffic is what makes an area grow. If we didn't have Ben Franklin's downtown would be dead. They're huge! It's amazing! I'm looking across the street seeing the people coming in and out of there everyday. It's wonderful! And Mattson's too! Mattson's gets a ton of business with their cell phones and their electronic equipment – their TV's and stuff – and appliances. So, to me, those two stores are just huge. And if we could get more of that type, you know, traffic is good! I mean, I like the small shops that offer like `unique' – the art shops, the book store is another good one. And all that helps, but traffic is definitely a good thing!"

Lauzon believes that the Downtown could possibly benefit from the Wal-Mart development, with proper signage, if some of the traffic were routed through the Downtown to get there. "I understand there's a sign project underway. I think that would help a ton. If you go to places like Wausau, obviously Wausau isn't Ironwood, and it's much bigger, but it's really nice to have directions to other places. So people can scope things out instead of just bypassing everything on the highway. I think that's definitely a plus. Other than that, more people, everything kind of gets spread around." Lauzon said.

"I think there's definitely hope for the Downtown. Is the Downtown going to be like it was when we were kids? No! That's gone! I think it's pretty much the way of economics in this country over the last thirty years. People hated Pamida when Pamida came because Pamida drew everybody up there. And people hated K-Mart when K-Mart came because they took away from Pamida. And people hate Wal-Mart because they're taking away from K-Mart. It's just kind of the next step and we need to work around that. You know, we can't go head to head with Wal-Mart on a lot of things. We just have to offer better services and personal services and look for our niches." Gerard said.

Lauzon went on to say, "I really like being part of the downtown and running my little business here – my little corner. I appreciate my neighbors and the comradery we have down here. And I just hope we can keep it going, and keep working to improve the atmosphere and the number of clientele we can get down here."

Gerard said he has an informational website, it's www.northlight-photo.com.  You can also access his site by clicking his sidebar ad in the Chronicle.

Jim Albert