Photography comes to life for this talented Moose Lake man
BY MAT GILDERMAN - Editor
CLOQUET PINE JOURNAL 10-27-2006
Paul Gregersen's energy and zeal for life are contagious. Be careful - if you're around him too long you may just want to go out and do something you've always wanted to.
Gregersen grew up in Detroit Lakes and graduated from St. Cloud State University (SCSU) in 2004. Soon thereafter, he decided to go after his master's degree from St. Cloud, and graduated this past May. However, after his first year of grad school, Gregersen was talking with close friend and Barnum native Jon Lundberg
"After getting my undergraduate degree, I really had no idea exactly what I wanted to do," said Gregersen. "I originally wanted to be a teacher, so I got my undergraduate degree in history, then I got another degree in mass communications with strengths in photojournalism and print journalism. But when I finished my degrees, I didn't know if I could see myself in a classroom or newsroom. So I just started grad school right away."
Gregersen began his trek toward a master's degree in social responsibility in the fall of 2004 and took a job as a graduate assistant in charge of the SCSU program's marketing and community relations. After his first year of graduate school, Gregersen realized he had taken more than enough credits for a first-year grad student, so he was able to considerably knock down his course load for "year two."
"At the beginning of my second year of grad school, I thought to myself, 'I gotta get out of here,' " said Gregersen. "Then Jon told me to come to Barnum, so I cut down my hours working as a graduate assistant, packed up my car and moved to Barnum with Jon and his family."
Gregersen met Lundberg the summer after his first year of college while working at the Minnesota Elks Youth Camp in Brainerd, a camp for underprivileged kids. Lundberg had been attending Middle Tennessee State University for music production, and lived with his family in their log home in Barnum. Upon the Lundberg family's invitation, Gregersen was nothing short of thrilled for the exciting changes ahead.
"The only stipulation I had about living with them is that I didn't want to feel like I was intruding on anybody - but I needed my space, too," said Gregersen. "They have this beautiful hand-made log home, but they had a bunk house. Jon's family and I fixed it up and that was my new home. It had running water, electricity and a beautiful view of the lake. I couldn't have asked for a better situation. Jon's family was very cordial and wanted to help. I'll never be able to repay them for everything they've done!"
After one week of living in the bunk house, Gregersen decided to look for part-time work. An ad with the school district caught his eye, so he applied for and got a position as an instructor for the KIDS PLUS Program with Americorps and the Moose Lake School District. Now he was working Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Moose Lake, attending classes and working as a graduate assistant while staying with his aunt and uncle in St. Cloud on Thursdays and Fridays, and coming back to Barnum on Saturdays. It was quite a plan that, in retrospect, couldn't have worked out better. And even though his buddy Lundberg was due back at school in December, he wasn't planning on skedaddling just because of that.
"I just couldn't believe I swung that, with all the different factors involved," Gregersen said jokingly.
His position working with Americorps and the Moose Lake Schools didn't pay particularly well, but it filled two important holes in his life - keeping busy and working with kids.
"That job was awesome," said Gregersen. "I was essentially the teacher, but not in the classroom sense. I was able to teach nature, photography and art among other things. The kids would come after school, do a half-hour of homework, have a nutritious snack, then have 'enrichment classes' whether it's learning nature, knitting or just something different they were not able to learn at school or at home. Moose Lake deserves a pat on the back for getting their kids involved with KIDS PLUS, because the kids are awesome, the community is great, the parents are terrific."
Gregersen claims the best part for him personally in working with the KIDS PLUS Program is how much it reminds him of his six years as a counselor at the Elks Youth Camp.
"I got to help kids and do creative, fun stuff with them instead of classroom work," said Gregersen. "Whether it's taking the kids canoeing, doing art projects or just going outside - it's like being back at camp, but all year round. That meant a lot to me."
Gregersen's time working at the Elks Youth Camp more than prepared him for working with kids in a less "camp-type" setting. He feels the things he learned during those six years were more than any classroom could teach.
"The two or three months I was at camp, I learned just as much as I did going to school for six months out of the year," he said. "Whether it was how to work with kids, how to work with adults, it was priceless. I look at that as just as important as my college education."
Speaking of college education, after commuting back and forth from St. Cloud since September 2005, Gregersen earned his master's degree in social responsibility this May.
The degree is a combination of sociology, human relations and multicultural education," he said. "I got to study people, diversity and oppression and how they all went together. I have to say, I learned so much from that program."
Living in a bunk house in the woods gave Gregersen a lot of time to do what he wanted to do, which meant a lot of reading, writing, and most important to him - taking pictures. Gregersen had thought of himself as a photographer since he was in junior high, and claims to have taken tens of thousands of photos since then. His photos have always been very well received - and that got him thinking.
"After
There are only a few things I’m unbelievably passionate about in life and one of them is taking pictures. I bought new equipment and opened my studio right out of the bunk house. It was so fun!"
Gregersen had always been a "snapshot" photographer, and this was his first delve into being a studio photographer. His training was reading book after book, and hour after hour of being proactive toward his goal. He also realized he had quite a bit of natural skill to go with his practice. The word was spreading quickly of his talents, and come May 2006, he moved his studio out of the bunk house and into downtown Moose Lake.
"I realized I needed a little bit more space if I seriously wanted to make a living out of this full-time," said Gregersen. "And the best place to get exposure was to be in the middle of it - not in a bunk house in the woods."
So Gregersen moved out of the bunk house and into Bunkhouse Studios at 602 Folz Blvd. in Moose Lake, 4 miles down the road. One part the studio, the other his home. His studio pays homage to his former living quarters with homemade furniture, refurbished hardwood floors and subtle earth tones.
"It was actually the original funeral home in Moose Lake after the fire," he said. "I opened up here in May, had a little grand opening, and been having some fun with it since. This summer I got some great business and hopefully that'll keep going."
Gregersen's photos aren't , well, traditional. If you go to Bunkhouse Studios for senior graduation pictures and family photos, don't expect the "status quo." However, Gregersen's photos aren't original for the sake of originality. He's more than capable of doing the regular suit and tie photos, but likes to go out on a limb - and his photos turn out to be more personal and meaningful because of it.
"I don't think like a studio photographer, I think like a journalist," he said. "for example, I took a senior photo of a kid who's paralyzed from the waist down, but is a bicycle rider--only with a hand-pedal bike. So I took photos of him using his hand-pedal bike. He's a regular Lance Armstrong biker, but with his hands. And the pictures needed to show that."
The quality of Gregersen's photos are uncanny. For example, he has a photo of his dad, a volunteer firefighter with the Detroit Lakes Fire Department, looking out the window of a fire truck. The look on his face and the angle in which the photo is taken are reminiscent of a photo seen in a major publication.
Finally, Gregersen can't say enough about his newly adopted hometown.
"The people in this town have welcomed this 26 year-old guy with open arms," said Gregersen. "And hopefully things will continue to work out."