One of Lethbridge’s longest running businesses, de Jourdan’s Photographic, is moving out of its historic location after nearly nine decades to the newly renovated former Paramount Theatres building.

It will reopen Wednesday in the new location on the corner of 4 Avenue and 8 Street South.

“It’s something I’ve wrestled with for probably over two years. The final decision was made in September of last year, when we made an agreement in principle with the developer for the Paramount,” said studio owner Mark Orenstein.

The company has been in business at 105 8 St. S. since 1921. The building is the former rectory of the St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, built in 1883.

“To be current in this facility, a massive amount of work needed to be done to bring the building up to a level where we could function in the environment we wanted to function in,” Orenstein said. “That’s what it came down to for us; what’s the best thing for us as a business? We didn’t feel like we could give our best service in this existing place over the long term.”

The new facility has modern amenities not possible in their historic building.

“It’s not wheelchair accessible, and with the aging population that we have, it’s becoming more of an issue,” he said. “Maintenance of the building was getting worse. We wanted to stay in the downtown core. We feel very strongly attached to downtown Lethbridge. The Paramount, the way they’ve renovated it. . . we’re getting the benefit of getting new construction and full accessibility.”.

The new location allowed Orenstein to design studios from scratch in a more open environment, and the atmosphere in which clients will be photographed is far superior to the current location.

“It’s not 1921 anymore. Things change and we need to be willing to change, and not for the sake of change, but because we want to stay current,” Orenstein said.

The de Jourdan’s business was managed by three generations of the de Jourdan family.

The original de Jourdan photographer, Pierre de Jourdan, purchased the 8 Street property from the Catholic Church in 1921, both to live in and work out of.
Pierre handed the business down to his son, John, and his son, Patrick, inherited the company. Orenstein purchased the company from Patrick in 2004.

The new location provides the space to be more creative and photograph larger groups than the studio typically had in the past.

“We’ve added a second room for when we’re photographing for things like graduation and business portraits. It streamlines the functionality and we can multitask better.”
As part of the move, de Jourdan’s is taking the opportunity to create a modern image of the company.

“We’ve rebranded visually with a new logo and visual brand, new website, all launched to coincide with the move, (but) it’s still the same visual service that people have been coming to us for years for,” he said.

Originally posted 2009-05-06 22:10:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

  • Share/Bookmark