Ken Bolf is a digital photographer and artist who works out of his home in Lebanon, Oregon.
Ken was raised in Lebanon and attended Oregon State University for two years. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Language Arts Education at Oregon College of Education in 1972 and a Master's degree in Education in 1983. He began his teaching career at Gilchrist High School in northern Klamath County, Oregon, where he taught grades 7-12 for three years. Ken then taught for two years in the Elkton School District in Douglas County before he was hired by the Central Linn School District in Linn County, where he taught for over twenty-five years.
From 1983 through 1994, Ken served on the editorial board of Calapooya Collage, an internationally distributed literary journal published by Adrienne Lee Press in Monmouth, Oregon.
In the spring of 2002, Ken was awarded Teacher of the Year by the Oregon Small Schools Association. He retired from education during the fall of the same year.
"It wasn't until I retired," Ken said, "that I had time to more aggressively pursue my long-time interest in photography."
Ken switched from film to digital photography in early 2005, and by 2006, his photographs were appearing in mid-Willamette valley newspapers and several venues in Linn and Benton counties.
Each year, Ken takes several photography trips, mainly to Oregon destinations. "Much of this travel is a solo activity," Ken said. "Working alone in nature allows me the concentration to continue to develop my style and to convey through my work some original and meaningful messages."
As of autumn 2009, Ken has exhibited his work in Lebanon at Aloha Photographic Studio and Gallery, the Lebanon Linn-Benton Community College Center, Citizens Bank, and Lebanon Community Hospital. His prints have also been displayed in Brownsville, Corvallis, Eugene, Scio, Springfield, and Stayton, Oregon.
Over the last several years, Ken has written several articles for "Historical Lebanon," a monthly feature in the Lebanon Express newspaper. He has also assisted WWII veterans with writing and packaging their war memoirs, sending some of the documents to the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Ken, a kayak enthusiast, continues to produce and exhibit his digital photography and art and regularly adds new work on this web site.
