Photographer Lauren Kirts takes pictures of a baby during a photo shoot.
Submitted photos
SEYMOUR — Three photographers, all natives of Seymour, are picking up the pieces after their studios were destroyed in a fire Saturday night and into Sunday morning in the historic Irwin Building in downtown Columbus.
The building housed several other businesses too, including the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce, Arnholt and Staggs Law Office, Bailey and Wood Financial Group and TD Advertising.
The photography studios impacted were Luminosity Studios owned by Ambrose Schneider, Lauren Kirts Photography and Marinda Fowler Photography.
Schneider said they’re all kind of still in shock over what happened.
“We don’t even know where to begin and it’s something we never thought would never happen,” Schneider said. “We just feel really displaced and trying to make sense of what’s going on.”
She lived in Seymour most of her life and then moved with her family to Columbus about three years ago.
“My studio started downtown in Seymour first, then four years ago we moved it to Columbus in that same space with Marinda and Lauren,” she said.
Schneider said she learned about the fire when she got up around 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning with her 12- month-old daughter, Maeve, and saw she had missed about four calls from Fowler.
“I thought there was only one reason she’d call me four times at 4 a.m. in the morning and that’s if something happened to our studio,” she said. “I called her back and she told me there was a fire and it was pretty bad.”
Schneider had her husband, Chase Schneider, tend to the baby and their son, Isaiah, then she immediately headed downtown to the building and saw it burning, she said.
“When I got there I forgot it was winter and had left my coat at home and was just standing there where the police officer was and some people began asking me if I was OK,” she said. “I told them ‘yeah, but this is my building,’ and so they took me over to talk to the fire marshal who told me it had been burning since about midnight and they were still working to put out the fire.”
She said at that point she went home for and returned at daylight to find the whole back of the building was gone.
“When it was dark out I could only see the front of the building so I didn’t realize the whole back side was completely in flames,” Schneider said. “My side of the studio was far away from where the worst of the fire was, but the third floor above me all burned and we’re pretty sure the third floor fell into my space.”
While she said most of what she lost is replaceable, Fowler had left some of her gear, files and some client orders at her studio because they do products and prints.
“I know that she’s lost a little bit more on that side of things, where I still have the things I’ve already worked on to deliver to different people, so I’m very thankful for that,” Schneider said.
She went on to say they’re looking for other studio spaces now and a few private landlords have reached out telling them they have some space available.
“There’s a very strong photographer community here (Columbus) and in Seymour and North Vernon, too,” Schneider said. “Everyone has been so kind to us and have said we could use some of their space for a couple months until we find someplace else.”
Sarah Wells, a client of Schneider’s and a graphic designer, set up a GoFundMe account for all three photographers “to help us in the transitional time between finding a place and finding somewhere to work over the next couple of months,” Schneider said. The GoFundMe can be found online at: gofundme.com/f/irwin-building-photographers-fire-support.
“Being downtown and being in a historic building was such a special place and the building was just so beautiful, the way it was made and the history of it,” she said. “I don’t see how we can ever recreate that; our community, location and environment.”
On Fowler’s Facebook page she wrote: “Friends. Family. And everyone in between. I am beyond humbled by the outpouring of love and grace you’ve shown me, my business, and my family. I’ve gotten so many messages, texts, calls, and emails that I literally cannot keep up. From Venmos, GoFundMes, and a special donation from our Seymour Football family at the awards program tonight, I’m speechless.”
Kirts said it’s been a couple of crazy days, but she’s hanging in there.
“I had 18 Santa mini sessions scheduled for Sunday morning starting at 9 a.m., so I had my alarm set for 7 a.m.,” Kirts said. “I grabbed my phone and had about 12 messages, so I quickly scrolled through those and Ambrose and I chatted on the phone and she filled me in.”
She said she had to go through all of her orders and contact her clients to let them know they weren’t getting their pictures taken that morning.
“It was pretty stressful and I was still kind of in shock and looking back, I’m thinking what did I even say to them?” Kirts said. “At that point we didn’t really know how bad it was so a lot of my clients thought they’d be able to come back in later, but as they day went on, they were calling the entire block a total loss.”
