}`HPLASErJ}.mt 10 .hm 3 .h1Grayson Enterprises Ltd. First NA Serial Rights .h217 Feb. 1991 Copyright 1991 .h3Page #. 1,023 words .LS2        STAN JORSTAD, PHOTOGRAPHER Written by June Grayson       It isn't easy to become a great landscape photographer. How   often have you marveled at the beauty of the world around you?   You whip out your 35 mm. autofocus camera to capture your favor  ite scenes and wait impatiently for the prints to be developed.   Then disappointment sets in. Reality has nothing to do with the   lifeless images you somehow captured at those rapturous moments.  Stan Jorstad, St. Charles photographer, does landscape   photography - although his finished prints probably have little   in common with yours. Yet, when you see his work, you have to  π03 Š say, "Aha, this is how it really was in that glorious place." For 35 years Mr. Jorstad has financed his expeditions   forlandscape photography from his earnings as a commercial pho  tographer. No gifts or government grants subsidized his work.   Now at the pinnacle of artistic power and technological skill, he   is poised to reap the rewards of such singular vision.  Catch the current exhibit at the National Center of Photog  raphy in Paris, France, before May 31st. This "Panoramas of the   Panoramas: a Retrospective of Panoramic Photography"  features 200 of the world's greatest panoramic photographers of   all time. Mr. Jorstad has five prints in the show.  From July 18th to September 16th, The Smithsonian National   Museum of Natural History, in cooperation with the United States   National Park Service, will sponsor a one-man show featuring 45   of Mr. Jorstad's fine art prints taken in the national parks.   More than one million people are expected to view this exhibit   entitled "In Celebration Of Our National Parks: The 75th Diamond   Anniversary Of The National Park Service."  After that, Safety-Kleen Corporation, the environmentally-  concerned multi-national company with corporate headquarters in   Elgin, Illinois, will sponsor a five-year traveling exhibit of   his panoramic color prints throughout the national parks.  Such recognition may make Mr. Jorstad an American hero and   national treasure.  π0- Š Panoramic cameras are specially designed to photograph wide   landscape views and large groups of people. Mr. Jorstad uses an   89-year-old Cirkut camera which exposes a full 360 degree field,   or any part thereof, on a single long strip of film. (The natu  ral vision of the human eye encompasses 90 degrees). "We turned   this venerable antique into a versatile and modern camera by   replacing its wind-up spring motor with two electric motors to   run at different speeds with its three different lenses," he   says. He also likes the Japanese Fugi panoramic camera and   sometimes uses an 8x10" Deardorff camera on location.  Mr. Jorstad develops his film in his commercial photography   studio, Photomark Corporation, established in 1979 in Carol   Stream. "You have to do your own printing so the image will come   out exactly the way you remember seeing it," Mr. Jorstad ex  plains.  Mr. Jorstad is no stranger to professional acclaim. During   his forty years of experience in studio, location, and fine art   photography, he has received well over 50 national awards fromhis   peers for excellence in photography, art, and design.  You may have seen his commercial photography without knowing   it in the magazine advertisements and annual reports he does for   America's foremost corporations. The Shedd Aquarium of Chicago   chose his "Nautilus" fine art poster to typify its cultural   mission. An exhibit sponsored by Waste Management Corporation at  π0- Š Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry features a 42 foot long   and 10 foot high enlargement of one of his images.  Television viewers of "Wild Kingdom" with Marlin Perkins and   Jim Fowler saw Mr. Jorstad's location photography in segments   oneagles, falcons, otters, bats, giant anteaters and the Lincoln   Park Zoo.  Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Batavia, Illinois, has   held two shows featuring Mr. Jorstad's work, so Fox Valley resi  dents have already had a tantalizing preview of this year's   exhibits.  Where does Mr. Jorstad derive the discipline to achieve his   self-assigned goals? Perhaps it comes down through the genes of   his sturdy Norwegian ancestors. In fact, his traveling compan  ions on location sometimes call him that "tough old mountain   goat" as he outclimbs and outcarries them through the roughest   terrain.  His father, an advanced amateur photographer, gave him   hisfirst camera, an Ansco, when he was ten. He still has it   ondisplay in his studio museum.  Yet Mr. Jorstad, a trumpet player in high school, majored in   music his first two years at Temple University. "Music, art,   photography, and design are all creative arts requiring the same   aptitudes and talents," Mr. Jorstad thinks. (Another Ameri  canphotographer, Ansel Adams, was a pianist before he switched to  π0- Š photography). When World War II erupted, Mr. Jorstad, a fine skier and   jumper, volunteered for the United States Army's 10th Mountain   Division. "Every college ski team in the country joined   enmasse," he remembers. "Our division was reputed to have the   highest average IQ in the entire US army."  These more than ten thousand men fought on skis in the   mountains of northern Italy while carrying their 24-hour survival   gear and ammunition on their backs. Their legendary exploits,   including the destruction of ten German divisions of which two   were panzer (tank) divisions, are credited with taking Italy out   of the war and mortally wounding the German Army.  An 88 mm. artillery shell which wrecked his left shoulder   onlysidelined him for six weeks. After the war ended, it was   home for more schooling on the GI bill at the Ray School of   Photography, Chicago, and a 25-year-long career as Director of   Photography at Container Corporation of America, Carol Stream.  Soft of speech but tough of mind and body, this 69-year-old   photographer still has his goals. He reaches for a well-thumbed   directory of the United States' National Parks. "There are   morethan 200 national parks. So far, I have only visited 69 of   them," he says.  He is counting on his fiercely loyal four-member studio   family (two of whom are his own children) to assume his profes π0- Š sional responsibilities so that he can concentrate on his fine   art photography.  Meanwhile, he and Wanda Jorstad, his wife of 44 years,   continue to call St. Charles home. "Why not?" asks Mr. Jorstad.   "Living next door to O'Hare Airport keeps me in touch with the   whole world."   #####