When Kristopher Grunert graduated high school in Yorkton in 1996 he stayed just long enough to save up the money to move to Vancouver knowing only that he could skateboard year-round there.
It was a young man's journey with little thought of a long term future, and no idea about becoming a world-traveling photographer.
Grunert specializes in architectural, industrial and urban landscape photography, a niche which has taken him to a number of countries shooting skyscrapers, gold and copper mines, and modern visions of developing cities.
"It definitely sounds really glamourous," admitted Grunert last week, days before flying out to shoot a gold mine in Red Lake, Ont. for a corporate client. He added it's not quite what people might think in spite of the locations he travels to. "You're going to a mine. You're working 18-hour days. You're staying in a mining camp."
That may be the case at times, but at others his work does take him to exotic locales.
Last winter, when corporate shoots were slow, Grunert said he decided to create his own work.
"I couldn't just wait around for the phone to ring It was sort of a self-assignment project," he said, adding it was "Phase I of an architectural world tour."
Grunert sent out 50 letters to firms with new buildings in China offering to go there to photograph them. He said he chose China "because so much is happening there architecturally, a lot of really exciting things."
The letters attracted some good contacts, and an offer to buy works from one of the biggest firms out there, the Pei Partnership.
"It was enough to cover my expenses and a little bit more," said Grunert, relating how Pei wanted shots of two buildings they had designed in Beijing and two others in Macau.
With Pei's needs paying the bills, Grunert said he was also able to do other work for himself during his two-and-a-half-weeks there.
"While I was there I was able to photograph a lot of other buildings," he said. From the 50 gigabytes of photographs he can pull images for other sale outlets.
"Some will become fine art work to be sold as prints for people's walls," he said, adding magazines are another market he will pursue.
The trip -- which he plans a local presentation on through the Godfrey Dean Gallery: a talk and slide presentation on Sunday October 23 at 2 p.m. -- while not as financially lucrative as he hoped, set a foundation Grunert said he hopes to build on. (The Gallery event is for members only, but memberships will be available at the door. Call 786-2992 for more information).
"I kind of proved to myself Phase I worked," he said, adding that its success has him looking to Phase II, a similar trip to Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Dubai in the Middle East.
"I'm going to places I know projects are happening," he said, adding in the United Arab Emirates people have "vision" when building modern structures. "They realize the importance that architecture plays in the identity as a country."
Traveling the world with a camera is not something Grunert ever envisioned growing up on the farm west of Yorkton, and attending Yorkton Regional High School.
"In high school I was obsessed with skateboarding, but here you could only skateboard a few months of the year," said Grunert who has recently returned to the family farm near Orcadia. "I knew on the West Coast you could basically skateboard all year round."
Grunert said it was a plan he knew didn't make a lot of sense, to the point when a co-worker asked him about the move he made up a quick story.
"I didn't really want to say I was going there to skateboard, so I said I was going there to study photography," he said.
Once in Vancouver he took a job at a department store, and for the next year he skateboarded, and then realized it was time to think about a career.
"I really didn't know what direction I was going to go," said Grunert, adding it was a case he went to the library, grabbed a book detailing careers, and started thumbing through it.
"I literally started at 'A' for accounting," he said, adding "I was pretty good at numbers."
And then Grunert came to 'P' and photography.
"I thought, 'Oh you're supposed to take a photography class,'" he said with a smile, thinking back to the story he had told his Yorkton co-worker.
Looking at photography as a career he said, "it sounded pretty fun to me," so the next day he drove around Vancouver seeking out available college courses.
"At first I took a night class and had a really great time."
Grunert was hooked and enrolled in a two-year, photography-specific course at Langara College.
"It was really a super technical program," he said. " The first year was all black and white film. It was more the technical side of things It was learning about perspective and lighting. It created a good foundation."
Even with two years of education, Grunert said he had no specific plan for a career, sort of stumbling into his first job. He said a few days after graduation he was at the college saying some goodbyes, when his professor related that a local photographer was looking for an assistant, and thought Grunert would be a good fit.
"He knew I had an interest in architectural photography," said Grunert.
So Grunert went to work for Rob Melnychuk.
"I learned a lot from him. He was a very successful architectural photographer in Vancouver," he said.
Grunert had long had an interest in capturing the dramatic images possible from the varied architecture of the world around him, although he admitted he had never pinpointed a reason for that interest. After some reflection over coffee he said it might have been a Prairie farm boy's awe with the towers of concrete and glass he found in Vancouver.
"It was fascinating to see the glass building, the size of them," he said.
At the same time Grunert was also drawn to industrial photography, adding much of his current work is with mining companies. He said the spark of his interest in that side of his work is better understood.
"I think it was Grade 7," he said. "My parents took a drive to South Dakota."
Grunert said he recalled an observation platform overlooking an open pit mine, and wanting the camera because he was so fascinated by the location.
While buildings are static structures, Grunert said getting the perfect shot is not simply pointing a camera and shooting.
"Architectural photography, it does involve some planning and awareness of light, the sun, where it is in relation to the building," he said, adding there is usually "an optimal time of day" to shoot a particular building, a time when the lighting is best to achieve the desired look. " For every type of angle one time of day is better than others."
One way to overcome the issue of natural light is to wait for the sun to go down.
"I shoot a lot of stuff at night," said Grunert, adding that this came out of being an assistant for a year. "I was so busy working with him I was too busy to take my own photographs during the day." As a result he began shooting industrial sites and buildings around Vancouver to build his personal portfolio.
Grunert said he hopes to do a seminar on night photography through the local gallery this fall too.
As Grunert worked to build his own career he came to realize the costs in Vancouver were high, with the rent of a one-bedroom house at $2,000 a month. So in 2009, as the world economy slowed, meaning many companies chose not to hire a photographer to help illustrate annual reports, Grunert looked back to Yorkton.
Grunert said his parents reminded him there was a home that could be fixed up only a mile from the family farm, and his wife Chelsea liked the idea.
While the move did separate him a bit from his usual clients, he realized he was traveling to mines and manufacturers across Canada, Mexico, South America, so his home address was not a huge issue.
Grunert said he also believes there are opportunities here for him to explore and develop.
"Saskatchewan is growing faster than anywhere in the industrial sector," he said, adding he just needs to tap into local companies.
