In the early 1980s, At Ohio State University, Ph.D. candidate Stu Appelbaum started selling used cameras from his home to support his family. By 1989 Stu's operation had begun to outgrow his home and himself as a lone employee. He incorporated and named the new venture Bill and Mike's Photo, Inc, after his grandparents. Ultimately he moved the operation to North High Street in Columbus' suburban neighborhood of Clintonville and called it "Midwest Photo." In 2014 Stu retired and his eldest son, Moishe bought the business, expanding on his own ideas while maintaining a family-run and small-business feel to the company. In 2016 Moishe moved the entire operation to a building three times the size complete with a learning studio and large warehousing space to accommodate the growing business. Midwest Photo has been owned and operated as a family business for over 30 years and continues to be a community resource locally and supplier of quality photo, video, and printing products.