Charla­van (Char) Man­darich was born in Ottumwa, Iowa and lived in Ken­tucky, Indi­ana, Kansas, Louisiana, and Michi­gan dur­ing her youth. She grad­u­ated with high hon­ors from Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity in 1989.

After grad­u­a­tion, she worked as a chemist for Wyeth-Ayerst Lab­o­ra­to­ries (a divi­sion of Amer­i­can Home Prod­ucts). Dur­ing her tenure with Wyeth, she quickly advanced to the high­est level chemist in the company’s operation.

After start­ing a fam­ily, Char’s pho­tog­ra­phy hobby turned into a full time busi­ness, and she soon tran­si­tioned from being a stu­dent of pho­tog­ra­phy to teach­ing pho­tog­ra­phy in East Lans­ing, Michigan.

Char has won mul­ti­ple awards for her pho­to­graphic com­po­si­tions and has become a well-known fit­ness and glam­our pho­tog­ra­pher. Her inter­est in artis­tic com­po­si­tion has led to an ancil­lary posi­tion as lead designer for Man­darich LLC.