Lou George received her first camera from her parents as a young girl. From that day forward, she was hooked on taking photos.

“After that, every picture I saw of myself, I always had a camera around my neck,” she said.

George said she knew she was destined to be a photographer, but as a woman in the mid-20th century, she faced discrimination.

“Women photographers were not welcome back then,” George said. “The first thing that I would hear—‘Oh, where’s the man?’”

After years of photography, George settled into darkroom work.

But even behind the scenes, being a woman posed obstacles.

“I offered to work for free for six weeks, and if they didn’t like me, they could dump me,” she said.

George decided to start her own photo development company in Dallas in 1975. Nearly 40 years later, BWC Printmakers moved to Richardson.

Going through film and seeing an image come to life were some of her favorite parts of the business. But as digital technologies emerged, George knew she had to adapt to survive.

“Transitioning to digital had to be one of the single hardest things that we ever did,” she said. “There was no one to teach us how to go through that journey.”

Today, the business offers a variety of services that bring film and digital photos to life, including scanning, mounting, album creation and retouching. BWC also creates fine art and photographic prints.

While the nature of George’s work has changed, the reward of helping customers preserve priceless memories lives on.

“I don’t think there’s any better feeling in the world than to hear our clients say, ‘Thank you, this is exactly perfect,’” she said.