A career built on trust, access, and follow-through.

David J. DeJonge is a Michigan photographer, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and civic advocate whose career has been shaped by a consistent method: get close enough to see clearly, preserve the first-hand evidence, and remain with the work long enough to make it useful.

Raised on twenty acres near Hudsonville, Michigan, DeJonge began his first portrait studio in his parents’ basement. He established DeJonge Studio in 1988 and developed his craft through news photography and private portraiture before operating a studio at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. An earlier Grand Rapids assignment became a defining story: DeJonge asked for five minutes to photograph Newt Gingrich and received ninety seconds. The resulting portrait appeared on the Friends of Newt calendar, newt.org, and in a PAC brochure. A subsequent Washington, D.C., session, documented in the March 2000 issue of Professional Photographer, brought Photogenic Lighting marketing director John Shirilla and Eastman Kodak’s Terry Deglau into Gingrich’s office, where DeJonge worked with both 4 × 5 and medium-format cameras. CNN later presented DeJonge’s 2003 portrait of President Gerald R. Ford as Ford’s last formal portrait around his ninetieth birthday.

In 1996, DeJonge and Grand Rapids Press columnist Karin Orr began Michigan Veterans of Five Wars, interviewing and photographing nearly thirty Michigan combat veterans whose service reached from World War I through Desert Storm. The exhibition debuted at the Van Andel Museum Center in 1998, was presented in the Michigan State Capitol Rotunda in 1999, and later became a permanent twenty-four-image installation at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans.

In May 2006, DeJonge became campaign strategist, project manager, public-relations point, and lead photographer for ALS Across America. He conceived a Route 66 series of environmental portraits at recognizable American landmarks, then edited, wrote, coordinated, and published between stops so each new human story could build attention and fundraising momentum while the caravan moved west. His photographs and a film made with Brett Ellens recorded people living with ALS along the route. Mary Free Bed’s institutional history reports that the campaign ultimately raised $318,000 for people living with ALS in West Michigan.

In 2006, DeJonge turned his attention to the disappearing generation of World War I veterans. Using family resources, he traveled across North America and Europe to photograph, film, and interview surviving witnesses from the United States, Canada, Britain, and Germany. The Department of Veterans Affairs later recorded that DeJonge worked with VA to identify, contact, and document nine veterans. Their portraits were unveiled at the Pentagon on March 6, 2008, and accepted for permanent exhibition.

That day also changed the direction of his public work. Frank Woodruff Buckles, America’s last surviving World War I veteran, attended the Pentagon ceremony and met President George W. Bush at the White House. Later, DeJonge accompanied Buckles to the neglected District of Columbia War Memorial in Washington. DeJonge recalls making two promises there: to help restore the memorial and to continue seeking national recognition for the Americans who served in the Great War.

DeJonge and attorney Edwin Fountain helped organize the World War I Memorial Foundation in 2008, with DeJonge serving as president. The resulting citizen campaign brought together veterans, educators, students, journalists, preservation advocates, and elected officials. DeJonge carried the veterans’ portraits into schools and public venues while working with congressional offices through repeated federal proposals concerning commemoration, a centennial commission, a commemorative coin, and a national memorial. Throughout that work, DeJonge served as a citizen advocate and coalition builder, while Congress and federal agencies carried out their respective constitutional and administrative roles.

The National Park Service completed a major restoration of the D.C. memorial in 2011. Congress subsequently established the World War I Centennial Commission, authorized a commemorative silver-dollar program, and enacted national memorial provisions. The National World War I Memorial opened at Pershing Park in 2021 and reached completion in September 2024 with the installation of A Soldier’s Journey. DeJonge continued to argue for the National Mall location he and Buckles had championed, including bylined opinion pieces in The Washington Post in 2014 and 2018.

He extended the historical project into Pershing’s Last Patriot, a feature documentary for which public credits identify him as director, co-writer, and executive producer. The project also supported civic-education programs in which students researched the war, created exhibitions, raised funds, met Buckles, and joined the national discussion about remembrance.

DeJonge founded Legacy Icons in 2012, bringing his experience in photographic reproduction and historical interpretation to sacred Christian art. That work now includes a collaboration connected with Saint Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai; Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery has publicly documented DeJonge and the Legacy Icons team’s role in developing a replica-icon project that supports the monastery. As of August 2026, DeJonge reports that Legacy Icons remains debt-free and has surpassed 80,000 customers and four million annual website visits. Founder-provided sales records document sustained, compounding expansion, with annual growth exceeding 40 percent in repeated years. The current operating figures are founder-reported rather than independently audited financial statements.

Based in Zeeland, Michigan, DeJonge continues to work at the intersection of trusted access, historical evidence, public purpose, and cultural preservation. His Dutch family-history research forms a quieter part of the same vocation: preserving inherited records for future generations.