Photographer tells stories from world in Carrboro

There are four black and white pictures hanging in the corner of Jesse Kalisher’s office at his photography gallery in downtown Carrboro.

“I think black and white forces us to get right down to the story,” he said. “There’s no place to hide in a black and white photograph.”

Kalisher is a photographer from New York City, whose journey to Carrboro involves circling the globe, waiting for the right photographs and a lot of storytelling.

“I thought I was going to be a storyteller through writing,” he said. “I had bought a little snapshot camera for my travels, and when I started taking pictures, I thought I was capturing memories, and I realized I was really trying to tell stories.”

Though his works have been displayed in the Smithsonian and the Louvre, Kalisher did not always want to be a photographer, especially after his father, also a photographer, tried to turn him away from it.

“I grew up with a healthy disrespect for what it takes to succeed as a photographer,” Kalisher said. “My father did everything in his power to dissuade me from becoming a photographer.”

Kalisher graduated from Northwestern University in 1984 and began working in advertising.

During his time in advertising, Kalisher said he made TV commercials and traveled every week, until he realized he wasn’t happy.

So he moved on to his next job as a contributor for multiple NPR radio programs, such as Marketplace, Savvy Traveler and Day to Day.

Kalisher relates his work as a contributor to his work as a photographer.

“I would do exactly what I ended up doing with my camera, but I was doing with words — I was telling stories,” he said.

Kalisher admits the start of his career as a photographer was not glamorous. Early in his career, he took on a few consignment jobs, taking prints to the shop where the store would price them for $30 and Kalisher would receive half of the sales.

“The first month in that shop I sold three prints, and I was ecstatic that three people thought to pay $30 a piece for my prints, and I got to take home 45 bucks,” he said.

Eventually, Kalisher was able to expand from a few prints a month to working at his offices in Carrboro, which provide prints for clients nationwide — mostly hotels and businesses interested in displaying his works.

David Winton, who works in the creative department at Kalisher’s gallery, was initially hired to run print and production for the gallery.

“We mostly sold to gift shops, and it was mostly Jesse’s photography,” Winton said.

That was five years ago.

“It’s grown quickly by leaps and bounds,” Winston said.

Helen Kalisher, Jesse’s wife, is the creative director for the gallery. She said the gallery’s client base has grown from zero hotels to about 30 hotels a month.

“And it keeps on growing – we keep hiring people to keep up with the work load. It’s amazing how much it has grown,” she said.

Jesse Kalisher said he slowly built up a successful, expansive business by constantly working hard and by setting goals.

“Never be afraid of failing,” Jesse Kalisher said. “Very few people get to go from zero to the finish line in a heartbeat. Most of us have to work a long time, and take a lot of small steps to get there.”

arts@dailytarheel.com