De Pere studio looks to relinquish Packers history

GREEN BAY – Over the last century, Green Bay Packers photography has grown synonymous with names like Stiller, Biever and Harmann, but one of those names is looking to relinquish that history to someone who might value it more.

The history of Harmann Studios can be traced back to the production of black and white images in a family farmhouse in 1958.

“My uncle actually got for his birthday, a dark room in a closet in the farmhouse; so, that was what I always call the true born part of Harman Studios — when my grandfather put that in for Cliff,” recalled Clif’s nephew, John Harmann.

In 1965, John’s dad, Wayne, became a partner and they opened their first studio in Algoma.

“They both — my uncle and my dad — served in the Navy in Vietnam or mostly during peacekeeping times, but they both came back. My dad was very much into farming in there. Eventually, my uncle asked my dad, because they were getting really busy really fast. So, Harmann Studios took off relatively fast back then,” John explained.

“So, my uncle was very much a person that loved the Packers, and he was very in tune with wanting to do something with the Packers. They went to the Ice Bowl, they saw all the great things that the Packers were doing; and they decided, being photographers at that time, they wanted to get in with the Green Bay Packers and capture some images for them and create that relationship.

“So, what I what I've heard from my uncle, which was very little because I came in kind of a transition where he had Parkinson's, that he, one day, went down to a Chicago game with Lee Remmel and Lee Remmel and him hit it off. (He) did some photographs — game day photographs — for him and eventually created that relationship in various ways.

“And from that point on, we were the Packers’ I would call this the commercial photographer because Jim Biever and Vernon Biever were obviously No. 1. Actually, I have Vern Biever’s last lens that he used on the sidelines. Still to this day, it actually has his name on it.

“So, 1970 was the first time that we actually took the team picture.

“I can't remember the name of the studio that did the Packer team photography for many, many years, but we bought the archives of all the team pictures. So technically, we have all archived team pictures from 1919 all the way up to when the Packers turned the team pictures internally.

“So, we have just a mountain of lots of negatives — some black and white — because back then you had to push the black and white film, which means you have to heat up the chemistry to get a little further than the actual silver will get you.

“I do remember many times sitting in our Washington Street store, which was our first camera store, sitting in the back room waiting for them to develop, you know, hundreds and hundreds of black and white [filming hanging.]”

In the late 1970s, color film took over and by 1996, Harmann Studios had grown to five locations — Sturgeon Bay, Algoma, Kewaunee, Luxemburg and De Pere.

The mid-2000s brought about digital photography, shortly before John and Amy Harmann took over the family business.

In 2018, the Packers moved the team photos to internal staff, ending the need for Harmann and his equipment.

In 2022, the last Harmann Studios location outside of the greater Green Bay area — in Kewaunee — folded into their De Pere location, which still continues operation.

Today, John Harmann is looking for new owners for those team photography archives, which contain a couple hundred thousand prints, negatives, slides and digital files.

According to an appraisal completed by Penelope Dixon & Associates in July 2023, the collection is valued at $480,000.

Harmann said that the sale of the archives only supplies the right to own, but the buyers would need to purchase an NFL license to use them.

 “I had a personal connection to it, and I enjoyed the time, but I do believe that someone else can enjoy it more than I do,” he said.

“For me, I don’t have any fascination to produce them. I have other drives in my life. It’s time. They are such great images; I hate to see them buried in my files.”