Skilled

Tod Bryant and Ken Follett are now wandering around the Tri-State area  (CT, NY, NJ) visiting the workshops and worksites of traditional trades craftspeople and between them enabling gallery and archival quality photos. We hope these photos will raise awareness of the pride in craft, high quality and dedication that traditional trades bring to an historic preservation project.

If you are a traditional trades practitioner and would like further information on how to be interviewed as a potential subject, then please contact either Tod or Ken. Be prepared with your favorite tools.

If you are not a traditional trades practitioner, but you know someone who is really good at what they do hands-on with traditional tools and materials, then send an email with contact information to Tod or Ken. Email queries only.

Tod Bryant: I have always been a photographer. Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1944, my father gave me an Ansco developing kit for film processing and contact prints, when I was eight. That was the beginning. We moved to Boca Raton, Florida in 1958, and I learned the basics of serious photography, as well as more about processing and printing, in the back room of Boca Camera. Since then I have worked for the City of Albany, NY, photographing historic buildings and later as a freelance photographer in New York City, shooting advertising, brochures and annual reports in 31 states and 5 countries on assignment. I also taught photography at the New School/Parsons School of Design in New York for 40 years, before retiring in 2015. I earned an MA in historic preservation in 2008 and began to use my photographic skills, as well as research and writing, as a historic preservation consultant. My work now centers on the documentation and evocative interpretation of historic buildings. However, my next project will be portraits of craftspeople inspired by the work of August Sander, Irving Penn, Arnold Newman and others. It will be a return to my roots of photographing and interacting with people rather than empty buildings.

Ken Follett: I have always been building things with rocks and sticks as a start, and now spend my days sitting at a computer doing estimates and proposals in the morning and messing with chickens and gardening in the afternoons. This after fifty years of contracting. A specialty in masonry restoration. I was a founding member and 1st president of the Preservation Trades Network and currently a lifetime member. I am also a poet and writer of odd stories. Many years back I was a collage artist and had quite a bit of fun with images. I have always carried a camera on projects and photographed. A motivation for me with this photography project is that I know a lot of tradespeople who work in the heritage conservation sector. I often hear that property stewards cannot find craftspeople to work on their projects. This puzzles me as I know many traditional trades practitioners... I want to know more of you. I also want the world to be able to see such amazing people. If we can get there we would like to make a book of the project.