Steve Jordan and Genie Lemieux have owned Evanston Photographic Studios since 1995, and they’re both familiar faces documenting the North Shore event and society scene. Lemieux’s mother, Mary Lemieux, was formerly a school teacher at Winnetka’s Crow Island School, and her father, Bill Lemieux, was an Evanston firefighter. Jordan and Lemieux have two children. They own original negatives and photographic plates with images of Northwestern University sports history and local landmarks, with many images shot by Dwight Furness, founder of Evanston Photographic Studios, who died in 1960.
Q: Steve, how are you helping to document the North Shore?
A: Part of the legacy we’re carrying on is the archive that goes back to the 1800s. Dwight Furness, he wasn’t one to sit around in the studio. He went out and documented.
Q: What’s the future of professional photography?
A: Steve: The future of modern photography is almost unpredictable. We don’t know which technology is going to come out. You’ve got to do it for the love of it.
Q: Genie, with the proliferation of cell phone camera imagery, what’s the snapshot of professional photography?
A: People have the impression that it’s so easy. I think there will always be a need for great, professional photography.
Q: What do you love about photography?
A: Genie: It’s the lives you get to learn about. You never know whom you’re going to meet.
Steve: It’s the people we meet.
Q: What do you like about Evanston and the North Shore?
Steve: Definitely the diversity.
Genie: The diversity. It’s all about giving back.
Shout Out is a weekly feature in which we get to know and introduce our readers to their fellow community members and local visitors throughout suburban Chicago.
Karie Angell Luc is a freelance photographer and reporter for Pioneer Press.
