About the Photographers George and Morgan Bragg

For over a decade, GEM Publications and Photography has been working to bring the time proven method of Cirkut Photography back to life in living color. It has been a journey that began with a fascination and developed into a full time career.

Due to his background as a West Virginia coal miner, George Bragg became fascinated with the panoramic Cirkut photography of an early coalfield photographer. In his spare time, he worked to learn all he could about this lost art of extremely large format photography and to expand his own collection. It was not an easy challenge to meet. In the 1980's, almost no one remembered the methods or techniques that had been used to capture the images of the coalfields of West Virginia in this special, up to six foot long medium. Gradually, he began to understand the concepts of this rare and exceptional photographic medium.

In 1987, while hunting for negatives in the jumbled warehouse of a local publisher, he could not believe it when he spotted, among the stacks of books and abandoned negatives - an authentic Cirkut Camera built in 1904. The publisher offered to sell the camera for $40.00 and the offer was eagerly accepted. Bragg was one of the few people in America who would have recognized the value of the old camera.

The challenge had only begun. He had to find a way to have the old camera restored, track down a reprinted manual, and locate a source for the six-foot long film. Eventually, all the searching paid off and he was ready to recapture the sites that were visited by Cirkut photographers almost a century before.

Today George Bragg and his son, Morgan, operate GEM Publications and Photography, which specializes in this extremely large format photography using the methods of the past to create modern color prints of the world of today. Even with the improvements of present day technology, no modern camera can match the sharpness of these large format contact-printed photographs.

Bragg travels all over the United States using his Cirkut Camera to photograph large groups of people at reunions, churches, whitewater competitions and sporting events. The 360-degree capability of the Cirkut Camera also places it in great demand for commercial photography and panoramic scenery shots.

The legacy of historical panoramic photography will not end with George Bragg however. Today, Morgan who has become very proficient with the 1904 Cirkut camera as well, carries on the tradition by helping to fulfill the demands of customers. Morgan now travels throughout the area providing photographic services that help to document the people and events in this unique format. Someday, the work of GEM photography will hang beside that of the original Cirkut photographers to tell a panoramic tale of over a century of photographic dedication and skill.

Click here to find out more about Cirkut Photography!