/ Shawn + Michelle /
In the dim red light, with the developer liquid rolling slowly back and forth over the blank white paper in the tray, an image started appearing on the paper. In pure delight and then fear of over-developing the image, I yanked the paper out, tossed it into the stop bath to quit the developing, and there frozen in time....is an absolutely horrible, hazy, underdeveloped, barely visible photo taken with a shoebox and a pinhole of my best friend's truck my sophomore year of high school in Rapid City, SD. I was hooked for life! To this day, I still have this image and have it on display here in the studio.
I went off to South Dakota State University to study Photojournalism and met my girl, Michelle, the first week of our freshman year at a bible study! A fellow photography student too, we'd work side by side in the darkroom ;) yearbook, school newspaper, freelance photographers for local newspapers and shooting portraits and weddings for friends. Over carving pumpkins and eating pizza, we dreamt of some day opening up our own studio with old brick walls and wood floors. After graduating, we went on to tell stories through photography in S.D., Utah and Iowa at newspapers and magazines before standing on the edge of that proverbial cliff, and leapt, starting Fagan Studios full time in Rochester, MN in 2003. Four years after launching our business in Rochester, we landed that college dream, purchasing our downtown building and all its 147-year-old glory!
Since then, we've been blessed to photograph incredible life events for thousands of families and trusted by commercial clients in creating their photographic content. We strive to create an incredible experience and astonishing art for our clients; I feel we've done so when the same families come back year after year, senior after senior. It's an honor when those same families ask us to photograph their kids' weddings... then babies!
While of course loving "photography," we quickly fell in love with the "business" part of our photography business. A few years after moving downtown, we opened the first floor of our building as an intimate event space, Studio324. It's been a blast activating this floor for public rental use, having hosted a great number of weddings, receptions, rehearsal dinners, birthday parties, anniversaries, holiday parties, etc... It's also the home of Michelle's personal art project of beautiful abstract floral photography.
Our most recent venture, we've put our storytelling skills together to help commercial and non-profit organizations alike tell their brand stories through engaging, compelling and inspiring films. Click "FILM" at the top of our page to see that work.
When not behind a camera, you can find our crew just about anywhere soccer happens! Coaching and cheering on our boys (Lucas and Jonas) while they play with MN Rush soccer, cheering on Minnesota United and Manchester United, or playing in different adult leagues in town. If I wasn't a photographer, I'd have to do something with soccer! We're also passionate about volunteering with our local Ronald McDonald House and Echo Church.
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