December 18, 2013

Our Inspire.14 calendar: The perfect gift for the Fargo-phile on your holiday list!

The calendars are here! The calendars are here!

We are so excited to announce that Kilbourne Group’s Inspire.14 calendars are officially in stores now. The annual calendar — which celebrates the many moods, events and seasons of downtown Fargo — features the amazing work of local photographers.

In fact, we think you’ll notice several improvements to this year’s calendar, including:

• Tons of facts, historic bits and stories about our fair city.
• Standout dates in Fargo’s past, including the date of the Great Fargo Fire and the debut of the Coen brothers’ “Fargo” at the historic Fargo Theatre.
• Twice as many photos as in previous years.

It’s a good thing we amped up the photos, too, because we have an amazing lineup of photographers:

Jesse Hoorelbeke of J. Alan Paul Photography  is a former professional baseball player-turned-shutterbug who has become a wizard at post-processing digital-enhancement techniques. His works have a vivid, dimensional, painterly quality that is at once haunting and beautiful. He is the No. 1 photographer at Spotlight Media, so you’ll see his images and photo illustrations in Fargo Monthly, Design & Living Magazine, Bison Illustrated and Fargo-Moorhead Stride.

Dan Francis of Dan Francis Photography has been capturing Downtown Fargo and Kilbourne Group properties for years. A Photoshop expert and digital photography instructor at Minnesota State Community and Technical College, he also knows how to enhance any photo to bring out its greatest potential. (He even seamlessly turned a certain person’s sweater from fuchsia to black in our calendar’s team photo this year!) Below, Dan captured the perfect pizza-flipping moment in the display window of Sammy’s Pizza! We love working with Dan and we always know his photos will be finished with the meticulous “Dan Francis touch.”

Photography isn’t Scott Archer‘s full-time job, although he invests a great deal of time, enthusiasm and energy into it. Archer, who has a BFA from the University of North Dakota, loves to find compositions, patterns and symmetry in the most ordinary of objects, such as power lines, water towers or the back alley of a seemingly unexceptional building. Scott calls these hidden gems “found artistry.”

Darren Losee is a professional photographer whose work also was featured in last year’s Inspire calendar. He and Dawn Siewert run Urban Toad Media, a busy and growing photography/design company that also finds time to publish a local men’s magazine, The Good Life. Darren contributed a couple of vibrant ESPN “Game Day” images to this year’s calendar, as well as a nighttime image of Kilbourne Group’s completely renovated Loretta Building.

Christopher A. Smith is a local artist and photographer who has been capturing downtown life for years. We were especially captivated by the photos he took of sure-footed wall-scalers attaching full-sized bicycles down the sides of downtown’s Hotel Donaldson.

By day, Dr. Niyutchai “Ton” Chaithongdi is a physician. But in his spare time, he likes to tour the city and capture great photos. You might recognize his work from last year’s calendar: the vibrant cover image of the historic Fargo Theatre. This year, he captured this tree in its full fall glory outside of the Fargo Public Library.

Kevin Taylor of Taylor Made Photography braved bitter cold to capture the many faces, floats and celebrations of downtown’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade last spring. His image of a gorgeous Clydesdale, decked out in St. Patty’s Day finery, was such a showstopper that we had to include it.

At $15.95, the calendars make the perfect holiday gift for any Fargo fan on your list. They are available on Fargostuff.com as well as in the following downtown Fargo businesses: Boerth’s Gallery, Unglued’s holiday pop-up shop at 102 Broadway, Zandbroz Variety and Moxie Java on Broadway.