City of Duluth Employee’s Photo One of 900+ Featured at Minnesota State Fair

Chris Lee's photo of his wife canoeing was one of 110 displayed at the Fair's Fine Arts Building.

DULUTH, Minn.- Among the many Duluth connections down at the Minnesota State Fair this year, one Duluthian proved you don’t need fancy equipment to take a fair-worthy photo.

Chris Lee works for the City of Duluth’s Planning and Economic Development Department and dabbles in photography.

He submitted a picture to the state fair on a whim, and out of 913 submissions, his photo of his wife canoeing was one of 110 selected to be displayed at the Fair’s Fine Arts Building.

“I picked this one just because of the colors, the canoe, the way the water was flowing,” said Lee.

And no fancy camera equipment was behind that shot — just Chris and his iPhone.

“An iPhone takes a great photo and any cellphone nowadays takes a great photo and being able to pull that out and when you see what you want to see and you want to take the shots that’s how you do it, and it works,” he said.

Chris snapped his now-famous photo last July at his wife’s family’s cabin in Nevis, Minnesota.

He didn’t win any awards so far, but he says it’s still a huge honor.