Russ Ohlson, photographer of presidents and celebrities, died at a Boston hospital April 7 after a long struggle to recover from lung transplant surgery. He was 66.
A service was planned for Saturday in Marblehead, Mass.
Ohlson, who for years owned a studio in southeast Denver, was considered by many as one of the premier portrait photographers in the nation, according to a 1991 Denver Post column.
Ohlson and a team of more than 300 photographers and assistants photographed the second inauguration of Ronald Rea gan, both of Bill Clinton’s and the inauguration of George H.W. Bush. That meant the inauguration itself, the balls, the prayer service and other events as well as informal shots of the families.
He also was the official photographer for the late President Gerald Ford and did many photos for former Vice President Dan Quayle.
“He loved people and could talk them into trusting him,” said a former colleague, Paul Skipworth of Dallas.
“He could talk to a truck driver or a CEO and make them both feel completely at ease,” Skipworth said. He said Ohlson “had a wonderful eye for composition.”
“He was flamboyant and had an incredible memory for names and places,” said Jim Carlson, a longtime friend and a portrait photographer. “He had a very, very special talent for connecting with everyone.”
But Ohlson also photographed the not-so-famous, sometimes doing six weddings a weekend, he told a Denver Post reporter.
He shot school graduations, family gatherings, pictures for people’s Christmas cards.
“He did everything — from babies to bar mitzvahs, Willie Nelson to Lady Bird Johnson,” said his daughter, Jennifer Ohlson.
In a 1988 Denver Post story, he was described as “handsome, gregarious and glad-handing — he fits into the society crowd.”
But he loved the family photo shoots and candid shots of regular people, said his son, Eric Ohlson of Marblehead, Mass.
Ohlson always preferred the Hasselblad camera and “didn’t think much of digital or cellphone cameras,” said his son.
William Russell Ohlson was born in Worcester, Mass., on Nov. 26, 1944, and went to high school there.
He shot his first wedding at age 15, and three years later he had his own studio.
Ohlson and his wife, Kathleen Roach Ohlson, moved to Denver in 1971, and he opened his studio, Ohlson Fine Photography, in southeast Denver in 1975.
“He was absolutely the happiest when he had a camera in his hand,” his daughter said. “You just don’t know how many people were touched by him and his pictures.”
Ohlson moved to Mashpee, Mass., on Cape Cod, in 2005 and had a studio there until his death.
Ohlson was a recipient of the Master of Photography degree from the Professional Photographers of America.
In addition to his son and daughter, he is survived by two grandchildren and his sister, Linda Ohlson Graham of Wellfleet, Mass.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
