Local Story is small but perfectly formed. Our principal, Jerry Kennelly, has a lifetime of experience in photojournalism and business, starting his career at the family’s newspaper publishing enterprise and going on to burnish his reputation as a photojournalist for major international newspapers and magazines, as well as wire photo services like the Associated Press.

When digital technology evolved in the early 1990s, Kennelly seized the moment and established himself as an expert in new scanning and computer technologies. By 1996, he had launched Stockbyte as Europe’s first royalty-free creative photography agency. The new business model, in which photography was licensed like software, took off like wildfire, and Stockbyte images were soon used by creatives in more than 70 countries. The business was acquired by Getty Images in 2006. Following that, he established Tweak.com, a platform that enabled the automation of marketing materials and the management of digital assets at scale.

In 2024, Kennelly returned to his first love, photojournalism, and in August 2026, he released Local Story’s first film about an Irish political family. The Healy Raes: Blood, Sweat & Tears was acquired by RTE, Ireland’s national broadcaster, and was first broadcast in Ireland in August 2026.