Dear José Picayo,

Thank you for taking our mugshots and showing us your old cameras. I think it was interesting to see how different cameras were then compared to the cameras now. For example cameras then were at least a foot wide and a foot long and were made to only take one size photo. The cameras were also a lot heavier which meant that photography was a job mostly for men. Jessie Tarbox Beals was one of the few women photographers and she had to work hard to be accepted by the people who gave out press passes and other photographers. I thought it was interesting to see the different kinds of photos that you have taken. It will be fascinating to see the mugshots that you have taken for the auction this year compared to the mugshots you did in 2008.

Thank you again,

Beckett Fox

Dear Jose Picayo,

Thank you for inviting us to your studio. We really enjoyed it and learned about so many cameras. I really liked how you took the mug shots of us. I also liked and thought it was kind that you took pictures of dolls to remind you of your family when they were sick.

From,

Zach Taschler

Dear José,

Thank you so much for letting our class come and visit your amazing cameras. I learned so much about them just in that one visit! I am surprised that back then the portable cameras were that big‍‍‍. I also loved the studio. The only thing that creeped me out were all the things that related to dolls. (I really don’t like dolls.) The mugshots were interesting and fun. Did you know we have learned a lot of stuff about Jessie Tarbox Beals and Jacob Riis. We learned that Jacob Riis took photographs of the tenements back then to show people how the conditions were and telling and urging them to fix the tenements. Jessie Tarbox Beals even got in a hot air balloon to take pictures and she would not listen to other people when they said she was not welcome to take pictures. Lewis Hine took pictures so he could ban child labor. After some hard spots where people did not listen to them child labor and the tenements did change in a good way. They both revolutionized the whole world and should be known for the amazing things that they did. Thanks again for the nice visit, it was very fun.

From

Madiba

Dear José,

Thank you so much for teaching us about photography and Augustus Sherman. It was such a privilege to get our photo taken by you and you made us feel very comfortable. I learned so much about cameras and polaroids and how to take huge photos. We learned about famous photographers and old cameras. It was very fun to learn about how to take photos and about film. It was so cool that we got our photo and it will be auctioned at Little Red. It was one of the loveliest field trips I have been on all year. Even though we already learned about some people you talked about we learned much more on this trip. I also learned about mugshots. I would like to say thank you again.

Sincerely,

Violet Zimmerman Wexler.