72-Year-Old Photographer’s Life is Transformed After Wrong Number Mix-Up
A 72-year-old photographer — whose work once documented major moments in San Francisco history — has found renewed recognition after a woman accidentally began receiving calls and messages intended for him.
According to a news report by NBC Bay Area, Lauren Stevens says the unexpected connection began after she was given a new work phone number that continued to receive calls and texts for someone named “Verndawg.”
Curious about who the messages were meant for, Stevens and several friends searched online and identified the recipient as 72-year-old photographer Wernher Krutein.
“One of my friends texted me and said, ‘This guy, Wernher Krutein, he’s iconic,’” Stevens tells NBC Bay Area.
Krutein has spent more than 60 years photographing people, architecture, insects, and everyday scenes around the world. Some of his best-known images were taken in San Francisco, including a widely recognized photograph from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake showing a car hanging from the collapsed Bay Bridge.
“I grew up seeing that photo in textbooks and documentaries,” Stevens explains. “And this was the photo.”
Stevens, who is also interested in film photography, found Krutein’s website Photovault.com, which contains nearly 500,000 images, and contacted him by email. NBC Bay Area says that what started as a conversation about forwarding messages gradually developed into a friendship.
“You could tell he didn’t really care about the messages,” Stevens explains. “What mattered to him was that someone cared about his work.”
Their emails later turned into phone calls and visits to Krutein’s home in Sonoma County. During that time, Stevens learned that despite his long career and extensive archive, Krutein had been struggling financially. Starting his website in the late 1990s, Krutein had once been ahead of the curve in presenting photography online. However, he said he later found it difficult to keep up in an increasingly digital industry.
“I’ve been barely making a living for years,” Krutein says. “I’ve pared down everything. I don’t even have heat in the house.”
Krutein told Stevens he believed his savings could last between six months and two years, but he was uncertain about what would happen afterward. Despite the scale and cultural importance of his photo archive, Krutein was now facing the possibility of seeking outside employment to survive. So in response, Stevens created a GoFundMe campaign to help cover his living expenses. The fundraiser has since raised more than $38,000.
She also began sharing Krutein’s photographs and their friendship on social media through the account @Verndawgtales. The account has attracted more than 64,000 followers on Instagram and over 37,000 followers on TikTok, bringing renewed attention to Krutein’s work and efforts to preserve his photographic archive.
“The world needs to see his work,” Stevens says. “It is crazy, diabolically amazing, and I feel so lucky to be the vessel to share his story.”
Krutein has experienced a revival of interest in his photography and financial assistance as a result of their unexpected friendship. He says the support has touched him personally as well.
“She’s brought me out of the darkness,” he tells NBC Bay Area. “That’s a gift beyond words.”
