His first business was a photo studio in his village.

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While many believe digital photography and phone cameras have doomed the industry, CPI's troubles were also connected to the details of its own product, said John Johnson, chief executive of Picture People, a competing photo studio with 150 outlets in malls and stores across the country.

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"It's a clever way to save money, " Anneli Sjogren, head of photography at IKEA, said during a recent interview at the company's sprawling photo studio in this sleepy southern town.

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But one gets the sense that he spends a lot of time in the elevator, starting many days in the new digital photo studio in the basement and then moving upstairs to sample production rooms and then the showrooms, which are divided by brand, gender and vibe.

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As soon as the uploads are complete, the content becomes viewable (and downloadable) in Kin Studio using a highly-stylized interface consisting of a mishmash of randomly-sized photo tiles on the screen and a scrollable timeline that allows you to filter your photos and videos by date.

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