Elmar Schmittou Photography, LLC

My name is Elmar, and I am based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

My love for photography sprouts from seeds planted at an early age by my late grandfather, Carroll. He was an amateur historian and genealogist, a commercial artist, and an immense talent with a pen, a watercolor brush, and chief of all, a camera. From the family portraits arranged by Carroll every Christmas, to the many thousands of photographs artistically chronicling the customary flow of his picturesque family life, it was clear to me that photography was much more than just a hobby to him. I would watch him with ever-growing fascination throughout my youth, not realizing the impact that my grandfather’s passion for photography was having upon my own.

At the age of 17, I used my high school graduation money to buy my first camera, and from that moment on, I was hopelessly in love. Although it was a crude and inexpensive device intended for only the most novice photographer, it was this camera that enabled me to realize my infatuation with the prosaic – the ordinary people and places I encountered every day. Wherever my life or travels have taken me since then, there has always been something or someone nearby to catch my eye and my lens.

I am an ardent documentarian, an archivist of memories, and authenticity is my philosophy. I am fervent about recording truthful, personal history. I believe that the grandest times of our lives are made up of the little things, and my purpose is to immortalize those details which define the human experience. I create real photographs to preserve real moments, and this is how I offer your future self the opportunity to look back and see the past just as it was.