“When you have a mission, a conviction, you perform on a completely different level.”
The first twenty-five years of my career, I was engaged to photograph golf courses for corporate clients around the world along with some of the largest publishers on the planet. On time/on budget and no excuses was (and still is) my mantra. I was fortunate to have gained the trust of these wonderful clients and did business with them for many years. Unfortunately, the golf industry fell upon hard times soon after 911. After having traveled over 5 million miles for my golf customers and realizing I was missing out on seeing my kids grow up, I decided to return to Oklahoma and publish a book about Oklahoma for its Centennial. A labor of love.
Soon after publication of Celebrating Oklahoma, I was engaged by the Integris Cancer Institute to decorate their new healthcare facility with images of our home state. This project changed my life. While my early work, which I dearly loved, was created to sell memberships, room nights, golf rounds and property, my work for Integris allowed me to go beyond being a “salesman with a camera” to photographing those things that patients, care workers, and families connected with and helped them in their healing journey. Whether it was facing the next chemo treatment, the next announcement the care worker had to share with a family or the family in the waiting room waiting to hear the diagnosis from the doctor.
All of these things were considered before placing each and every image in the entire hospital. (Ultimately over 500 large scale pieces). While this element was life-changing, the next element was the ultimate. After the work was hung, I started receiving letters from doctors, nurses, administrators, patients and family members about how much the artwork enhanced their experience at the hospital. One letter, in particular, from a patient, described how they always arrived early for their infusion treatments and spent about an hour just walking from one image to another calming themself prior to reporting to the infusion area. That was nearly fifteen years ago and I am still totally blown away by these letters.
I have, for many years, been a huge fan of such photographers as Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Brett Weston, Eric Meola and Eliot Porter. Of course, I admire their work, and admire their unbelievable accomplishments and successes. However, the knowledge that I have been of help to those in need of comfort during their times of despair, anxiety and fear has been the highlight of not just my career, but of my life.
We have always conducted our business based on one simple rule, The Golden Rule, and gauged our success by that rule.. We have forever and will always treat every customer as we would want to be treated ourselves. We take extreme pride in our craft at every step of the process. KLEMME/Art is a family business. We have built our success on the customer service, trust and decency you would expect from a small-town “mom ‘n pop,” and the professionalism and expertise that is required to work with some of the world’s biggest and most respected brands.
We look forward to the opportunity to help you achieve calmness and healing you deserve in your home or office environment.
All the best,
The Klemme’s