about

J o n a t h a n

Checkerbox is owned by Jonathan Mandel, a San Francisco photographer since 1999. In addition to my many photographic credits, I am a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar College, and I love to cook.

w h y   c h e c k e r b o x ?

When I was a boy, my grandfather had one of those portable checker and chess sets, the kind with the pieces inside the board. But all the pieces were gone, and instead the box held the family pictures. I loved looking at the curly-edge photographs of my grandfather and my dad as a young man. Whenever I went to visit, I would ask for the checkerbox.

One day there was a fire in the kitchen. Grandpa and grandma tried to put it out, but when it got too smoky they ran out of the house. The one thing they carried was the checkerbox.

The fire department came and put out the fire before it spread, and no one was hurt. I've always remembered how important those pictures were to my family. I still look at them with my dad sometimes when I visit. And when it came time to name my business...how could I choose anything else?