When Ingrid Kabela first arrived in Victoria from Germany in the early 1960s, she experienced culture shock. Everything from the wide-open roads to the different types of bread available at grocery stores, it was a completely different environment from her hometown in Hochspeyer, Germany.
Seagull on the wall of Cathedral Mont St. Michel, St. Malo, France.
“When I came [to Victoria] the first time it was so different, that is hard to imagine somebody from Europe to come to rural Texas,” Kabela said.
Ship off the coast of Argentina on the way to Montevideo, Uruguay.
Coast of Brittany, France in August 2019.
Kabela first started her journey with photography after her husband, Edward Joe Kabela, a U.S Army soldier, bought her a camera after a tour in Korea. Through her husband’s military duties, Kabela traveled all around Europe, taking her camera everywhere she went. She documented her family’s travels and through this she fell in love with photography.
Sandra and Michael Kabela at an Easter egg hunt in the forest of Hochspeyer, Germany, Easter 1969.
John F. Kennedy at Armed Forces in South Naples, Italy in July 1963.
“Travel and photography has always been my passion,” Kabela said.
“You have something tangible to look at to refresh your memories and the many happy moments that you’ve had in life.”
Buckingham Palace, London, England during Easter 1972.
Kabela memorializes her trips and memories through making her own photo books that feature a comprehensive number of images that she’s taken over the years.
Chapel close to Marfa.
Since 1976 Kabela has settled down in Victoria, but she makes time for traveling across the country and abroad.
The Victoria Photography Club helps encourage Kabela to look back through her work and relive lifelong memories.
Grindlewald, Switzerland.
Alpine glowing.
Lake Fandango, tip of Argentina in Patagonia, 450 miles from Antarctica.
“Photography gives you the opportunity to relive the happy and sometimes sad memories, she said.”
Ingrid Kabela
