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Martin Photography Studio
Family Biography
Frank J. Martin was employed at Terre Haute Traction and Light Company when he identified a need for his other companies to create blueprints locally for the rapidly expanding city. In 1906, Martin purchased the city's first blueprint making machine. and established an office at 681 Wabash Avenue. Soon thereafter, Martin expanded his business by establishing a commercial and portrait photography studio that would be known simply as Martin's Photo Shop. In only a few short years, Frank Martin had established his reputation as the finest photographer in the region.
Martin captured on film countless newsworthy events and social gatherings and sold the images to the city's three daily newspapers: the Tribune, Post, and Star. As the business grew, each of Frank Martin's six children assisted in their father's studio; however, it was Martin's sons Willard and Ken who would perpetuate the family company. In 1933, Frank Martin was tragically struck and killed by a vehicle while he was crossing Cherry Street on his way to photograph an ISU prom. Ken and Willard Martin purchased the business, already ailing from considerable loss due to the early days of the Great Depression, from their widowed mother and breathed new life into the company. Willard, the eldest, maintained the profitable portraiture department and Ken assumed the bustling commercial and news-printing department. Under guidance of the capable young men, Martin's Photo Shop flourished for another forty years.
As was the philosophy of their father Ken and Willard continued to pioneer new photographic technologies. The Martins were the first in the region to experiment with electric light flashes and bulbs, color film, and smokeless flashes for group portraits. The latter process would earn Ken the esteemed nickname of "One-Shot Martin" who, through the blessings of technology and expertise was able to take enormous group photos in only a single take. One of the attributes that propelled the Martins to the top of their industry was their collective ability to catch the life and spirit of their subjects on film. Whether taking formal portraits of a couple's fiftieth wedding anniversary or candidly photographing a tender reunion between soldiers and their families, the Martins lovingly and unobtrusively captured life's drama on film.
After a full career as a photographer, Ken Martin retired from his profession in 1976 thus concluding a seventy-year family tradition. During its operation, Martin's Photo Shop documented eight decades of Terre Haute's history. Together the Martins photographed nearly every president from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard Nixon as well as numerous actors, authors, athletes, and everyday citizens. When the shop closed, over a ton and a half of photographic records were removed from the studio. While significant parts of the collection were given away to the Vigo County Library and Indiana State University Archives, the majority of the photographs were given to the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis.
While the Martin collection is perhaps one of the most frequently reproduced and researched bodies of work in the state, the photos are generally viewed as historical documents rather than works of art.