Dutch Walla became interested in photography while serving with the army in Germany from 1948 to 1951. Walla bought a 35 mm Leica camera and eventually showed his work to Otto Roach in 1953. Using his G.I. benefits, Walla apprenticed with Roach for several years. At the age of 31, Dutch Walla bought the existing business from Otto Roach in 1958 and built upon Roach's business foundation. Walla learned Roach's talents of photographic composition and maybe more importantly, photographic darkroom techniques, especially for "large format" printing of black and white, color and oil-based hand colored prints. However, Walla would take the business in a slightly different direction. Rather than being a commercial photographer for hire, Walla focused on becoming more of a commercial lab producing custom photographic prints for other clients and photographers while also mounting, laminating, and framing photographs. Walla also focused extensively on aerial photography in Denver for its growing real estate market from the early 1960s to about 1990. In December of 2002, Walla created Gallery Roach located inside Roach Photos to showcase the works of Otto Roach and himself. Walla is still part of Roach Photos, shooting landscapes, organizing gallery shows, and working his charm with customers even though he is of retirement age. At present, Roach Photos, Inc. is operated by Walla's sons, Jay and Dennis and continues to specialize in film-based custom photographic enlargements of black and white and color prints, fine art reproductions and archival printing, copy negative work, mounting, laminating and framing. |
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