For Bigfork photographer, relationships are critical

A studio photograph, according to Lauren Grabelle, shows a world created according to a preconceived idea.

But a photograph taken by Grabelle shows the world  through her eyes, almost as if the viewer had slipped through a portal behind an office filing cabinet and gained access to her mind.

Yes, just like in Spike Jonze’s 1999 film, “Being John Malkovich,” she says with a laugh. 

Grabelle, a nationally recognized photographer who recently relocated to Bigfork from Eatontown, N.J., isn’t much for artificial studio lighting and false backdrops — which is why she says Montana is the perfect setting to continue her career. 

“The beauty of the land and the people … it’s so real,” she says.

Reality is what Grabelle aims to portray through her work.

Her specialty is capturing relationships, whether it’s between a bride and a groom, a dog and its owner, or people and nature.

She said she feels such relationships are best illustrated when she can see how the subjects behave in their own environment, and bringing them into a photography studio is similar to taking an archaeological artifact out of its original context and placing it in a museum — a belief influenced by her background in anthropology.

And, she adds, when a person, animal or object is photographed in its primordial setting, there usually is no need for interpretation. It is simply reality happening right before the photographer’s eyes.

Grabelle’s wedding and dog photographs have appeared in The Knot, Wedding Channel, Brides NJ, Brides Philadelphia, and NJ Bride magazines, The Bark magazine and the American Kennel Club’s Family Dog magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, and New Science.

Grabelle’s love for photography began during her childhood in Tinton Falls, N.J.

She received her first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, when she was 6, and her first 35-millimeter camera when she was 12. She says her mother, who years earlier had worked for renowned New York City fashion photographer Peter Basch, was “always the person in the family with the camera, documenting all us kids.”

Grabelle often would try to mimic the various camera shots her mother took.

She continued photographing through high school, then after graduation moved to New York City, where she spent a year working as a window display artist for Barnes and Noble Booksellers.

But it was during the following years Grabelle spent working in the casinos of cruise ships in the Caribbean that she truly began to explore her skills as a photographer.

Inspired by the documentary work of photographers Larry Clark and Nan Goldin, she began creating a portfolio of what she calls her strongest work to this day.

The cultural diversity she witnessed — both on the islands she visited and the ship crews — sparked her interest in anthropology. It was also during this time that she was able to characterize her style of photography.

“I knew I was doing something different than the other people who I worked with on the ships,” she says. “I saw something different than most people.”

While others would shoot photos of sunsets on the beach or their friends drinking cocktails, she preferred to photograph the less conspicuous scenes of the islands and their native people.

When Grabelle returned to New York three years later, armed with a portfolio of photographs, she enrolled in New York University, where she majored in anthropology and took photography classes at the Tisch School of the Arts. She also studied photography at Parsons the New School for Design, the International Center of Photography and Eddie Adams Workshop. After graduating from NYU with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, she landed an internship in the film division of National Geographic Television, where she was able to combine her interest and experience in anthropology, film and photography.

During the following years, Grabelle established herself as a wedding photographer in various parts of the country including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Los Angeles. It was only two years ago that she fell into her other specialty: dogs. 

Always an animal lover, Grabelle grew up with dogs as a young girl. Five years ago she bought Sugar, the Weimaraner puppy that would become her companion and muse.

After several years of photographing Sugar as she grew up and posting the photos online, Grabelle realized she had the potential to create a business out of photographing other people’s dogs.

“Weddings are about the relationships between people,” she says. “And I realized I just really wanted to transfer that to the relationships between people and their dogs, and their environment.”

Her years with Sugar have also taught Grabelle the importance of establishing relationships between dogs and other dogs — one of the motives behind the weekly event known as “Yappy Hour” she recently began hosting. Yappy Hour, a mixer for dogs and their owners, is held every Thursday at her studio from 4 to 7 p.m. Anyone may bring dogs, remove their leashes and let them mingle.

“A lot of times people don’t have the opportunity to socialize their dogs, and it’s so important,” says Grabelle. “It keeps them in shape mentally and physically, just like socializing a kid.”

The idea was inspired by similar event in Asbury Park, N.J., called Doggy Yappy Hour. She and Sugar often would attend the event with her brother Josh, his wife and their five dogs.

Grabelle was particularly reminded of how much she missed it when one Sunday at the beginning of May, about a month after she had moved to Bigfork, Josh sent her a text message reading, “Missed you at Yappy Hour yesterday.”

Grabelle, however, decided to simply create her own version — which she hopes will be a

good way to promote her business and for her and Sugar to make new friends. Under the supervision of Ellie Bell from Best Friends Dog Training, the dogs may wander about Grabelle’s studio and its fenced in porch and yard. Grabelle also provides an agility jump, a small inflatable pool and refreshments — treats for the dogs and pretzels, wine and mojitos for their owners.

Grabelle also invites volunteers from local animal shelters, including Flathead County Animal Shelter and the Humane Society of Northwest Montana, to bring adoptable dogs. 

“I feel like the luckiest girl in the world that I landed here,” she says. “Just the way that the town has embraced me.”

One of the things Grabelle says she loves about Montana is the variety of animals with which the residents tend to have relationships — which is why she hopes to expand her client base beyond people with dogs. 

“Goats and horses are next,” she says.

Grabelle’s gallery is located at 7984 Montana 35 in Bigfork. Her work also is available for viewing and purchase at Montana Bear Food at 475 Electric Ave., Bigfork, on her consumer site, www.lgphoto.com, and her fine art documentary site, www.laurengrabelle.com. 

Follow her on her blog, www.laurengrabelle.blogspot.com, or her Facebook page, www.facebook.com/laurengrabelle. Her office phone is 837-3900; her e-mail is  lauren@lgphoto.com.