—  About

Ken Papaleo: nationally awarded, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer in Colorado.

Ken discovered his photography gift during the mid 1970’s while attending college in the Los Angeles area. After graduation he worked as a photojournalist for the Santa Monica Evening Outlook and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner before moving to the Denver area in the early 1980’s to shoot for the Denver Rocky Mountain News.  After the News closed in 2009, Ken started his freelance photograph business called “High Country Coloring.

His graphic, eye-catching photos have won state and national awards during his time with the News. In 2000, Ken and the News photo staff won the coveted Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography for their coverage of the Columbine High School tragedy. In 2003, Ken and the News photo staff won its second Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography for their coverage of Colorado’s summer wild fires.

In addition to Ken’s photojournalism medium, in 1991 he started to hand oil-color his black and white photographs, first as a hobby and then as a part-time business. Currently he is selling his work in selected Colorado galleries.

Ken found hand painting to be a good release from the sometimes emotional and stressful world of photojournalism. His unique style turns the B&W print into a multi-dimensional piece of art. Hand-painting B&W photos is an old art form that was used before color film was introduced. At that time, the only way to get a color photo was to have it painted by a colorist. Once color film was perfected, the need of hand painting declined.

Today there are very few who perform this task. The most critical part of this medium is a strong B&W image. Marshall oil paints are then added to the B&W print by using a home made brush created using cotton and toothpicks. The applied oil paint creates a multi-dimensional world contrasting the black and white portions of the photo to the colored ones.

Ken’s goal, while traveling the back roads and highways of his picturesque state, has been to capture the beauty and glory that only God could have created. He hopes to share its magnificence with you through his limited edition prints.

General Inquiries

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