Dennis Cahlo

THE LONG STORY

Dennis Cahlo was born in Staten Island, New York to an Italian immigrant father and a Long Island born mother. He grew up dreaming of touring the world as a rock star. He did just that along with his band (and best friends) The Realistics starting in the year 1999.

Along the crazy journey he took pictures with a camera his parents bought him. He photographed everything he saw. At some point he amassed a small kingdom of light meters, 35mm, and medium format cameras. With all that equipment he taught himself how to photograph things. People things. Animal things. Building things. He photographed all the time and eventually got really good at it. 

After The Realistics disbanded in 2004, Dennis formed Saints And Lovers with brothers Scott and Doug Meola. They did pretty good, too, but the rock star lifestyle caught up with Dennis and he stopped pursuing music as a way to make a living.

So he meandered through life trying to figure out what he would do next, shaved his head, became a hermit, and tried being a blogger for a minute until he realized that taking photos was really his thing.

One day in 2013 a lovely human asked:

 "Hey Dennis, I hear you pictures. Will you take photos of my face?"  

"Sure", Dennis said.  

And here we are. 

Since that fateful day, Dennis has made his living as a successful photographer shooting stills for Film Forum, Frederic Fekkai, The New York Times, and so many more amazing clients. Transitioning to filmmaking, Dennis has made 3 award winning short films The Weekend (2015), Death (And Disco Fries) (2018), and Lonely Hearts (2020) as well as a soon to be released full length music documentary In Flowers Through Space (2019). Currently he is adapting Lonely Hearts for television with creative partner Bethany Watson as well as developing several projects with comedian Krystyna Hutchinson.

Eventually, Dennis would like to own a full sized Greyhound named Chicken and a French Bulldog named Waffles.