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Alumna blends parenting skills with photography

By Tom Vogel
August 14, 2006

St. Olaf alumna Juli Hanssen '84 is putting her photography skills to the test, aiming to make photo studio visits enjoyable for children and their parents. Hanssen, who earned her art history degree from St. Olaf and has studied in New York, London and Florence, is the co-owner of Smirk, a specialty photo studio in St. Louis Park, Minn. Along with co-owner and freelance commercial photographer Tad Saddoris, Hanssen, a mother of three, has created an approach that blends professional talent with parenting skills.

"This is how we would treat a client or a model coming in [to a commercial studio]," Hanssen said in a recent Star Tribune article. "That's what we learned over many, many years. It works with the general public really well."

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.