Walter was was born in Chicopee, MA and started photographing with black and white film in high school, developing his photographs in the darkroom he built in his father’s basement.

 

He continued to photograph throughout college, participating in student shows and photographing for the yearbook. The summer after graduating, in 1970, Walter lived in Boston and was a photographer for the Phoenix newspaper. That fall, he got married and moved to Wellfleet, where he's have lived since. They had two children, so photography took a back seat for while.

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In the late ‘80s Walter started photographing again, working in both black and white and color film. He photographed for the Cape Codder, shot weddings, had photos in various local and national magazines such as Cape Cod Magazine and WoodenBoat, and won a couple of prizes in local photo shows.

 

Then came digital photography. This changed a lot of things. Taking a well-focused, well-exposed photograph became less of a skill, more automatic. He became interested in a different style and aesthetic, sometimes called Lo-Fi, plastic camera, Diana, Holga photography. Walter bought a couple of Holga plastic lens cameras and continued to shoot film, but had the film scanned and printed digitally. He had a full show and opening of Holga prints in 2008.

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In pursuing the Lo-Fi aesthetic, Walter have recently been using various iPhone apps, and rely on the iPhone camera for all recent photographic needs.