Picture Duluth: Photographs of the Zenith City
Duluth native Dennis OHara grew up in West Duluth, graduating from Denfeld Senior High School in 1971. He furthered his education at the University of Minnesota Duluth, earning a degree in industrial technology, and later studied photographic techniques through the New York Institute of Photography. Today Dennis resides at Caribou Lake just outside the city but keeps his eye on Duluth from his duluthharborcam.com Web site. He and his wife, Debby, are the proud parents of three children and four grandchildren. Denniss photography career started in the early 1970s when he operated a variety of cameras from the back seat of a RF-4C reconnaissance jet with the Duluth-based 148th Fighter Wing of the Minnesota Air National Guard. After retiring from the Air Guard in 1992 he stepped into nature photography as an avocation while employed  as a Power System Operator at Minnesota Power. In May of 2006 he retired from that career and now devotes his time to photography as both a hobby and a business. Over the years Denniss work has appeared regularly in regional books, magazines, calendars, corporate publications, billboards, and print advertisingand of course at his own northernimages.com. Since its debut as a simple picture of the week website in the early days of the internet, the site has grown into a gallery of Denniss extensive collection of work.  Zenith Citys publisher Tony Dierckins is an author and book designer from St. Paul, Minnesota working and living in his adopted home town of Duluth, Minnesota. Dierckins has worked in publishing since 1988 and has written or co-written nearly two dozen books, from the ridiculous Duct Tape books and calendars to the informative Crossing the Canal; An Illustrated History of Duluths Aerial Bridge, a 2009 finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. He is the 2012 recipient of the Duluth Depot Foundations Historic Preservation and Interpretation Award, part of their annual Arts & Culture Awards.