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Home | About W. E. Wells | Photograph Gallery | Gift Store
About W. E. WellsWilliam Earl Wells was born in 1932 in Otter Creek, Illinois, the son of Harry Robert Wells Sr. and Emma Lillian Kaufmann. He had a brother, named Harry Robert Wells Jr., and a sister named Retha. The family suffered much hardship in those early years with the market crash and the death of Harry Sr. in 1942. Both boys went on to join the military as they grew older with Harry Jr. going into the Army and William to the Navy. William spent most of his Navy days near Japan during the Korean War as a torpedo technician and then worked for the States of California and Texas before starting work at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. Some years later he went on to work for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, in Kittery, Maine. Always enjoying the art of photography it was here that he took a step beyond amateur photography and began selling his works. He drew on his experiences at the Smithsonian to help him produce the photographs for market and sold them at a few locations within New England. The photographs themselves were taken between 1970 and 1991. All the photos except for the lighthouses were taken with a 35mm camera. The lighthouses are from a variety of lighthouses in Maine and were taken by a very large 4 x 5 camera situated on a tripod. The "rolls of film" were more like rectangular plates that were, of course, 4 inches by 5 inches and about half an inch thick. With each photograph the plate would have to be removed and a new one inserted into the camera. Taking each photograph was a very time consuming process that seemed to take about 45 minutes per photograph. You can learn more about this process from the mini-essay: Taking the 4x5 Photos. William died in 1991 and his photos sat in storage for several years before this website brought them back to the public. More will follow as time and funding permits. We hope you enjoy the site and look forward to introducing more of his works as soon as possible.
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