Corporate Photography & Headshots in Chicago
I grew up in Lake Forest and went to Northwestern, so Chicago is not a market I had to learn. The studio is in St. Louis and every Chicago booking is a travel day, quoted as a line item. On-site corporate headshots, executive portraits, and video production for teams across Chicago, the North Shore and the western suburbs, from the same portable studio that travels to every city. Trusted by MHS Legacy, Johnson & Krol, and organizations around the country.
Coming Home
I am from here, even though the studio is not.
Lake Forest kid, Northwestern grad. I know the good light on LaSalle Street, the right lobbies in the Loop, and which doormen on Michigan Ave will give you two minutes in the right spot if you ask nicely. When I come back for a shoot, I'm not figuring out your city. I already know it.
That saves time on shoot day and it shows up in the work.
What we make for Chicago teams
A headshot program is usually the first project. It is rarely the only one, and the same photographer handles the rest.
Corporate headshot programs
Whole teams photographed in one or two days, to one standard that holds as people join and leave.
See headshot programsExecutive portraits
Leadership portraits with the weight the business expects, for annual reports, press and the board page.
See executive portraitsBrand films and campaign video
Directed, filmed and edited by one person, from the first scope conversation through final delivery.
See brand film workRecruiting and employer brand
Culture photography and video made in the building people would actually work in, for careers pages and hiring campaigns.
See recruiting workCommercial and facility photography
A marketing team's image library for the year, so the next campaign does not start with a stock search.
See commercial workConference and event coverage
Sessions, keynotes, booths and headshot stations, photographed and filmed in the same visit.
See event coverageHeadshots are often one piece of a larger photo library. The same visit can also cover leadership portraits, recruiting content, workplace photography, video, or event coverage, and when one photographer handles all of it, the library looks like it came from one company.
See how the full engagement worksHow We Work in Chicago
Where a Chicago program is set up, what it usually covers, and how we keep it consistent with your other markets.
Where we shoot
On-site at offices downtown and in the suburbs, from the Loop, River North, West Loop and Streeterville out to Schaumburg, Naperville and Oak Brook. We bring a portable studio and only need ~8×10 ft of clear floor space.
Conference & event venues
Headshot booths and event coverage for shows at McCormick Place, Navy Pier, the Hyatt Regency Chicago and the downtown hotels. A booth station is planned for 100 to 150 people per day per station, scheduled so the line never backs up.
Projects a Chicago program is built for
Wealth management and asset-manager team headshots in the financial corridor, legal and consulting headshots in the West Loop, and brand/recruiting video for tech and healthcare offices in River North and Streeterville.
A selection of clients, in Chicago and beyond
From MHS Legacy and Johnson & Krol, a Chicago labor firm, to organizations across the country.
Where we work across Chicagoland
Most corporate offices are not downtown. These are the districts where the work usually is.
Downtown Chicago
The Loop, the river towers, Fulton Market and River North. Different buildings, different light, one standard. We photograph on site in whichever one your team sits in.
Schaumburg and the Golden Corridor
Schaumburg holds more office space than any other suburb in the Chicago metro. We photograph teams on site in it, in the towers off Martingale and Woodfield and out along I-90.
Oak Brook and the East West Corridor
More headquarters per square foot than almost anywhere else in suburban Chicago, and most of them belong to brands with marketing departments. We photograph on site, in your own building.
Lake Cook Road and the North Shore
The corridor Henry grew up on. Deerfield, Northbrook, Lake Forest and Northfield hold one of the densest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the Midwest.
Rosemont and O'Hare
The one Chicago submarket built around an airport. If your leadership is flying in from six cities for two days, this is where the photography should happen.
Naperville and the I-88 Corridor
The corridor that gave Illinois its technology industry, and the one with the most interesting story to tell on camera. We photograph on site in Naperville and out along I-88.
The move west
Half of corporate Chicago has changed buildings. The photography usually has not.
Google took a cold storage warehouse on Fulton Market in 2015 and the district has not stopped since. McDonald's left Oak Brook for Carpenter Street in 2018, Mondelez left Deerfield, Boston Consulting Group left 300 North LaSalle for Green Street, and Greenberg Traurig left the Loop entirely. Kirkland & Ellis moved out to Wolf Point. Meanwhile LaSalle Street, the canyon that was the whole point of Chicago finance, is being converted to apartments.
That matters to a marketing team for a plain reason. Team photography made in the old building looks like the old building. Grey conference room, different light, backdrop nobody uses any more, and half the people in it have since left. A move is the most common reason a company finally rebuilds its image library, and the best time to do it is once everyone is in the new space and before the website relaunch that follows.
If you are one of the companies that has moved, or is about to, that is worth a conversation before the moving date rather than after.
What Chicago is built on
The sectors that define this market, and what each one usually needs.
Law
One of the deepest legal markets in the country. Kirkland & Ellis, Sidley Austin, Mayer Brown, Winston & Strawn, Jenner & Block, Latham & Watkins and Katten all run substantial Chicago offices, spread now between the LaSalle canyon, the river and Fulton Market.
Attorney bios matched across offices and practice groups, and a standard the next lateral hire can be dropped into without a reshoot.
Trading and finance
CME Group on Wacker, the Board of Trade at the foot of LaSalle, Cboe in the Old Post Office, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Northern Trust in the building it has occupied since 1905, and a dense proprietary trading community around them.
Executive portraits with the weight the business expects, and floor and facility imagery where access is tightly controlled.
Advertising and marketing
Chicago has been an agency town since Leo Burnett opened in 1935, and the Leo Burnett Building on Wacker still carries the name. Edelman was founded here in 1952. FCB, Havas, Ogilvy, Energy BBDO and a long independent bench work the River North and Michigan Avenue blocks.
The work most like ours: brand films, campaign video and library photography made to a brief, on a schedule that was agreed with a client of their own.
Consulting and professional services
Accenture has a tower named for it above Ogilvie. McKinsey opened its first office anywhere in Chicago in 1926. Deloitte, EY, PwC, KPMG and Boston Consulting Group all run major Chicago practices.
Large repeatable headshot programs across several floors, refreshed on a cycle, with partners and new analysts matched to the same standard.
Healthcare and life sciences
Northwestern Memorial and Lurie Children's in Streeterville, and the Illinois Medical District two miles west, which brings Rush, Stroger, UI Health and the Jesse Brown VA onto adjoining blocks.
Physician directories at scale, photographed on site between clinics rather than in a studio nobody has time to visit.
Food, consumer and manufacturing
McDonald's, Mondelez, Conagra, Kellanova, Molson Coors and Archer Daniels Midland all run their headquarters inside the city, most of them in or near the West Loop.
Leadership portraits, plant and facility films, and product-adjacent library work that a marketing team can draw on for a year.
Where I love to shoot in Chicago
On-site at your office is still the most common choice. But if you want an environmental or editorial portrait, these are the spots I return to.
Chicago Riverwalk
The skyline shot that doesn't feel like a postcard. Architecture on both sides, clean water below, and late-afternoon light that bounces off glass in a way that flatters every face. My first stop when a client wants Chicago in the frame without saying Chicago too loud.
LaSalle Street Canyon
Walls of stone and glass narrowing into the Board of Trade. The best backdrop in the city for finance, law, and private equity portraits. Shoot between 3 and 5 PM on a weekday and you get drama without tourists.
The Rookery Building Lobby
Burnham and Root's 1888 light court, restored by Frank Lloyd Wright. Marble, gold leaf, iron stair railings, and a skylight that does all the work for you. One of the finest editorial interiors in the Midwest. Ask politely at the front desk.
Michigan Avenue at the Wrigley Building
The commercial polish shot. Terra cotta, Gothic detail, and the river bridge just out of frame. Works for anyone who wants Magnificent Mile energy without looking like they're posing in front of a tourist sign.
Northwestern Lakefill, Evanston
My old backyard. Chicago skyline sitting across the lake, sailboats in summer, and stones you can sit on for an honest, un-corporate portrait. I took a lot of bad photos here as a student. I'm much better at it now.
Baha'i Temple, Wilmette
The North Shore's architectural secret. Lace-carved stone, a nine-sided dome, and reflecting pools that double as fill light. Worth the twenty-minute drive from downtown for anyone who wants a portrait that won't look like everyone else's.
Sample Work for Chicago Programs
Sample work photographed in St. Louis. Every Chicago program is shot to the same standard by the same photographer.
“My experience as a first time 'model' was fun because of your amazing coaching skills and the pictures are fantastic. I will definitely recommend you to all my friends.”
Silvia Garbu
Headshot Client
A Chicago firm's standard
Johnson & Krol set the standard in Chicago. We matched it in another state.
Johnson & Krol is a Chicago labor firm with an Indiana office. When it opened a third office, the brief was not to give the new attorneys a look. It was to match the one already running on the Chicago and Indiana bios: green canvas, relaxed clothing, warm frontal light, no stiff corporate posing. The question we answered before taking the job was whether we could match it, not whether we liked it.
Eight attorneys, two frames each, ninety minutes, and the new office now sits on the firm's people page beside Chicago without reading as a bolt-on. That is the whole argument for using one photographer across locations, and it is the same argument whichever city is the one that set the standard.
Johnson & Krol is not the only client of ours with a Chicago office. IWR North America, a building enclosure contractor founded in St. Louis in 1895, describes itself as headquartered in the Midwest with satellite offices in Dallas and Chicago. We built the headshot program running across IWR and its parent holding company, MHS Legacy Group: more than thirty people on one standard, with new hires still matching the originals rather than arriving as an obvious later addition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Chicago photography.
How far in advance should we book a Chicago session?
Do you charge a travel fee for Chicago?
Can you photograph at our Chicago office?
What size teams can you handle in one day in Chicago?
Do you offer video production in Chicago?
What Chicago venues have you worked at?
Bringing a shoot to Chicago?
Tell me about your team, the venue, and the timeline. I'm back in Chicago often and happy to coordinate around an existing trip to keep travel costs low. Expect a response within one business day.
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