Local portrait photographer was accidental historian of LaPorte, Indiana [audio 9min]

For more than 25 years, Frank Pease was the primary portrait photographer in LaPorte, Ind. -- a town of about 20,000 just south of Lake Michigan. Starting in the mid-1940s, Pease took tens of thousands of black-and-white photos at his Muralcraft Studio. He took engagement photos, baby pictures and family portraits -- all of the people of LaPorte. Pease kept thousands of uncollected proofs in boxes. When he died in 1970, they were forgotten, left to collect dust. The new owner of a restaurant downstairs from the studio inherited the collection when he purchased the building. The restaurant owner decorated his B&J's American Cafe with some of Pease's photos, and put the rest in a back dining room for customers to browse. A few years ago, Jason Bitner, co-founder of Found magazine, happened across the photos at B&J's. He sorted through all 18,000 photos and, struck by their beauty and the milestones they marked, compiled some of his favorites into a book called LaPorte, Indiana. Producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister, of Long Haul Productions, spoke with Bitner, and tracked down some of the subjects of the photos. Webpage includes extended report, photos, weblinks.