Tom Schindler

Artistic Photography by Tom Schindler

About the Artist
My journey began at 15 years old 😊
One visual guy!



It was the mid-1970s, decades before digital cameras became ubiquitous. I was a 15-year-old kid in Jackson, Michigan, with a dirtbike I no longer wanted, and the only interested purchaser was somebody with a camera and some cash. Thus my photography journey began. I learned through trial-and-error how to use a manual camera and soon went to work in the photo industry, finishing prints and picking up film at local businesses as a delivery boy for a local photo processing company. From there, I got a job in a camera store called the Jackson Center and also was the photographer for my high school yearbook. Following high school, I spent five more years in the photo industry working for Clark Townley as a darkroom technician and portrait photographer at Townley Studio in Jackson. When opportunities for advancement started to feel scarce, though, I made a career change to real-estate in 1984 and my passion for photography fell by the wayside. The birth of my son in 2002 is what ultimately led to the rekindling of my love for taking pictures. Special moments, trips, and the things he was drawn to (particularly trains) became my muse and began to bring me back towards photography. Today, as a 63-year-old, taking pictures has again assumed a prominent role in my life. Family, cityscapes, seascapes, and nature are now favorite subjects for my photography.