The Nation's Studio

[smoke665]

Olan Mills known across the country was founded here in our state, and grew to be a household name. I like most others my age have more than a few portraits of family members with their distinctive watermark. The rise and fall.... https://alabamanewscenter.com/2025/...-led-the-nations-largest-portraiture-company/

 

[DanOstergren34 4]

A lot of studios of that nature have unfortunately gone the same way. I used to work for one called The Picture People when I was first getting into photography, and even those are going the same way.

 

[smoke665]

The Mills family was pretty shrewd, they had a good run, but had enough vision to see the writing on the wall, and sold out to another company in 2011, 8 yrs later the new owners closed.

 

[cgw128 153]

Ah, that taxidermic look so beloved for so long by so many...Remember an Olan Mills of my irascible grandmother that creeped me out. The frame now is the phone and no longer an
8x10 on the TV, alas.
Intrigued by negative troves that sometimes surface when long-time, small town studios close.
Well-known is the huge pile of Mike Disfarmer glass plates from his rural Arkansas studio.
Though hard to grab cheap now, I have a small collection of 40s-60s mugshots. Still considering
using them to concoct a dysfunctional family tree--yet another tasteless project, I'm told.

 

[smoke665]

Ah, that taxidermic look so beloved for so long by so many...Remember

They had one pose and one standard 3 light set, what did you expect for $19.95? what freaked me out were the hand colored prints.

Still he's the only studio photographer I know that got rich. At its height it was generating close $300M annually. Surprisingly information on his net worth isn't out there. I do know his daughter's mansion in Chattanooga hit the market in 2021 for $7M. Safe to say Mills Sr likely died a very rich man