Meet Kenn & Andrew Hanowell | Founders

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kenn & Andrew Hanowell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kenn & Andrew, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Well, during Kenn’s senior year of high school, he started taking his passion for photography from photojournalism style shots on concert trips and during the school plays and musicals to offering affordable and free senior photos for his classmates whose families couldn’t afford professional photos. Eventually, after working a couple of weddings and continuing to provide intermittent senior photo shoots, he went to college for his first degree in music education. In a few years, his world-view changed and became much more visually centered due to chronic illness and he decided he wanted to re-engage with the world through a camera lens, offering his services once again to communities and persons who struggled to pay for what he considers precious memories. “I personally don’t believe that photos of you, your family and friends, at special times should be a luxury, so it’s been my goal to reach the communities and individuals who would love to have this service but always felt like they couldn’t afford it”. So we started coming up with ways to provide this service to people who also couldn’t afford wedding services. Ultimately, it was a friend of Andrew’s who’s child was getting married while she photographed that catapulted us into making this a reality. For both of us, it wasn’t something we wanted to have happen while we could help. So, with Andrew’s background and experience working as a DJ/KJ *(karaoke jockey) in the Springs community, we decided to make it affordable to get music and photography for a reasonable price. Watching a mother try to photograph and DJ their child’s wedding was simply something we couldn’t handle and decided that we would make our services available and affordable.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Last year, Kenn’s dog that he had for over 13 years passed away. Not long after, he came up with the idea for the Farewell Friends photography that we offer free of charge. He wanted to ensure that everyone has access to fond memories and high quality photos of their furry family members regardless of their economic means. This is something that we are most proud of.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We would probably start by having a nice homemade lasagna and drinks, games, or karaoke at home to let them relax. After that would take a few days to walk around Manitou Springs, visiting all the adorable shops and riding to the top of Pike’s Peak, Kenn would take whomever wanted to Sushi Rakkyo for their amazing all-you-can-eat lunch or dinner or Quijote’s down off Union and Platte for some authentic Mexican food. Late into the week would make sure to get them to Garden of the Gods and, if they have children, Santa’s Workshop.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
A huge shoutout to Jason Latka for always being an amazing friend and putting us out there. If it weren’t for him we wouldn’t have got our first official event. Also to the United Court of the Pikes Peak Empire for allowing us to get out there to capture an event that supports the LGBTQ+ community in its entirety.

Website: www.ceruleandreamsphotography.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ceruleandreamsphotography