The work of an amateur photographer whose life’s passion was boxed up after his death is getting new exposure thanks to an Elgin couple who inherited his more than 20,000 Kodachrome slides.

In a story that’s not unlike that of Vivian Maier, a Chicago-area nanny whose street photographs were discovered after her death, Irving A.J. Lawres was a retired banker who became an avid shooter following his retirement. After he died in 1982, his work ended up first with his sister, then his niece and then, in 2005, in the Elgin home of Amy Wisinski and her husband, Robb Walker.

Wisinski, Lawres’ great-great niece, stored them away too until about two years ago, when the couple decided to take a closer look and were surprised by what they found.

Robb Walker and Amy Wisinski, of Elgin, have started Walker Lawres, an online business selling the photos of Irving A.J. Lawres, a passionate amateur hobbyist who died in 1982. (Provided by Robb Walker and Amy Wisniski)

Lawres’ work captures places around the world that provide a singular look at fashion, architecture, autos and what life was like more than 50 years ago, they said.

“A favorite of mine is of a sunbather on a rocky beach in Sochi,” Wisinski said.

Bringing that body of work into the 21st century has become their mission. They are cleaning and archiving the photos and making prints available online for purchase at shop.walkerlawres.com.

Lawres was born in 1901 in Milwaukee. After graduating from Marquette University, he headed to New York City to obtain a master’s degree and then embarked on a banking career, Wisinski said.

“He and his wife, Maribel, traveled extensively, both domestically and internationally,” Walker said. “He was a fellow of the Photographic Society of America. He was a member of a very small group of American photographers invited to Soviet Russia in 1974 to document life behind the Iron Curtain.”

Lawres wrote articles for the photographic society and his photo of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow was featured on the cover of the PSA Journal in October 1974, Walker said. He also entered some competitions and was involved with clubs devoted to showing and discussing slides of their work, Wisinski said.

A photo of the iconic onion domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow was taken by Irving A.J. Lawres during a special envoy trip to Soviet Russia. It graced the cover of the October 1974 issue of the Photographic Society of America Journal. (Walker Lawres)

“And he railed against what he called the tyranny of rules with respect to photography and how images were judged in competitions back then,” said Walker, a retired accountant.

Walker’s own interest in photography was emerging about the same time they inherited Lawres’ slides, he said.

“In fact, my father-in-law let me choose one of Irv’s old cameras to use,” he said.

The couple say that bringing the photos back to life is good way to counter the growing use of AI images. Plus, the vintage shots also come with good stories, they said.

That’s because Lawres extensively organized, catalogued and notated his work. While some of the slides wound up out of order over the years, they are mostly in good shape and have been relatively easy to work with, Walker said.

Irving A.J. Lawres took this photo in 1963 showing the mid-century modern design of the entrance to the Palm Springs Spa & Hotel in Palm Springs, California. The resort was demolished in 2014. (Walker Lawres)

They’ve joined the American Photography Archives Group, which has been of help in learning how to preserve old photos.

“So far, I have managed to curate, clean and scan a little over 200 of the slides,” Walker said. “Of those 200, I have already deemed more than 50 images good enough to offer as prints on our Walker Lawres web store.”

He’s also found therapeutic value in creating ink-on-watercolor paintings based on Lawres’ photos, some of which are also for sale at the online store, he said.

For his part, Walker said he has been impressed by how well Lawres’ photos are composed.

One image of a restaurant in Naples, Italy, which is still in business, captures how it looked decades ago, he said. Another shows two boys praying by a statue of the Virgin Mary in an Italian courtyard.

In this 1968 photo by Irving A.J. Lawres, two schoolboys kneel in prayer before a shrine to Mary in an alcove in Tivoli, Italy, near Rome. (Walker Lawres)

“It looks like a watercolor painting and seems fitting for this (Lenten) time of year,” Walker said.

One his favorites is a shot of a long-closed spa and hotel in Palm Springs, he said.

While his wife is still working as legal firm marketing consultant, Walker said his retirement years will be devoted to archiving the collection.

“There is a lot of subject matter that you just cannot go see anymore today. It’s like opening a time capsule,” he said.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/06/elgin-photographs-slides-online-lawres-walker/