Life has an amazing way of revealing itself.

During the last week of 2025, I was doing genealogy research and learned my Great-Grandfather Gustav Prahl was not only a photographer, but co-founded The Photoart House in 1912; a first of its kind all-inclusive commercial photography business in Wisconsin...and one of the first in the United States of America. In 1934, he would open a new store called Photocraft. However, he would never realize its potential as he unexpectedly passed away 10 months later, at the age of 48. His wife, Emma Susan who was also a photographer, was left to raise my 3 year old Grandmother Florence and her brothers. 

Three generations later, none of what I had just shared was passed along. My Grandma Florence shared stories of playing on the Wisconsin Capitol steps, but the rest remained largely a mystery. Newspaper documentation and photography from those days breathed life into my history and a purpose of which I had no previous connection. Photography is, literally, in my blood. 

That is power of photography. Photography documents and opens a window to the family you never knew. The people you wouldn't exist without.

Photography is a moment...a story...a heirloom.

The goal of my work is provide a snapshot of a life of which you can be proud...that smile, gorgeous eyes, that quirk...a beautiful moment eternalized not just for you, but for those to come.


JOE STADELE PHOTOGRAPHY
Interdisciplinary Commercial Portrait, Travel and Event Photographer
Part 107 Licensed Drone Pilot (USA)
Advanced RPAS Certified (Transport Canada)

608.385.5896 | joe@joestadelephotography.com 

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