How Photographer
Drew Kapalach’s Camera
Sees Galveston

I’ve known Drew Kalapach for nearly thirty years. And what makes that significant to this story is that he was one of the first full-time residents on Galveston’s Strand when its adaptive restoration began.

Without anyone asking him, Mr. Kalapach, who has always worked in the oil industry, began chronicling with his camera the Galveston that he saw. There are hundreds of photos in his collection.

And he began when a lot of this story was happening in Galveston’s old and dilapidated downtown.

George P. and Cynthia Mitchell and others were beginning their heavy investments in it, trying to bring it back to life.

Drew Kalapach was to Galveston what Victorian photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron, was to the “Little Pals” of New York City in the mid-1800s, photographing what everyone would want to know about a century later.

Both blended into the streetscapes as they quietly took pictures of those things they personally found interesting and important. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was posed.


Mr. Mitchell recently died, and many who knew him – whether casually or closely – clamored to announce to the world their relationship, and why that gave them the authority to regurgitate the same list that others had enumerated of his accomplishments in the oil and gas industry, and then to ratify that they deeply admired him, suggesting that those listening to or reading their comments should, as well.

At the top of this piece, there is a photo taken by Mr. Kalapach that reminds me of a great George Mitchell story, one that’s completely different; one no one knew to tell.

The photograph is of Mr. Mitchell with an ice cream cone in his hand. He has just bought it from the Strand confectionary he owns that is in the building that’s in the background.

It’s known as Old Galveston Square.

He owns the building, too.

He’s leaning over one of the trash cans as he eats his ice cream cone so that it won’t drip on the sidewalk. No one other than Mr. Kapalach and his camera is nearby to see him, and even if they were, the chances are they wouldn’t know who Mr. Mitchell is, much less why he is being so fastidious.

But, you see, that’s the George Mitchell that Drew Kapalach and his camera believe those who come after us should meet.

And he’s right.