Corporate photography in 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.
Downtown Chicago is several office markets pressed together. The LaSalle Street canyon is the old financial district, pre-war stone narrowing toward the Board of Trade, with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Northern Trust facing each other along it. Wacker Drive carries the modern towers: Willis Tower, 110 North Wacker, the Leo Burnett Building, the Civic Opera Building. Across the river the West Loop runs from the commuter terminals at Union Station and Ogilvie out to Fulton Market, where Google took a cold storage warehouse in 2015 and McDonald's, Mondelez, Boston Consulting Group and Greenberg Traurig followed. River North holds the loft stock the agencies and design firms prefer, with theMART and Salesforce Tower on the water. Streeterville is the medical campus, Northwestern Memorial and Lurie Children's, with the association headquarters around it.
The built environment changes block by block and it changes the photograph. LaSalle gives you stone, brass and directional light down a narrow street. Wacker gives you glass, river views and lobbies designed to be looked at. Fulton Market gives you brick and timber with new glass on the next lot, so a portrait can go either way within a walk. River North gives you exposed brick and big windows in converted printing lofts. Knowing which of these your building is before the day starts is most of what makes the day run.
Where Downtown Chicago works
Almost every session happens on site, in your own building. Knowing the room before I arrive is part of what keeps the day on schedule.
LaSalle Street and the Loop
The canyon: the Board of Trade at the foot of it, the Federal Reserve and Northern Trust along it, The Rookery halfway down. Pre-war stone and the most old-money backdrop in the city, now with historic towers being converted to apartments around the remaining tenants.
Wacker Drive
Willis Tower, 110 North Wacker, the Leo Burnett Building, the Civic Opera Building and the CME towers. Glass, river views and lobbies built to be photographed in, if building management is asked in advance.
The West Loop commuter core
Accenture Tower above Ogilvie, BMO Tower beside Union Station, River Point and 150 North Riverside on the confluence, the Old Post Office over the expressway. The newest office stock downtown, and the easiest to schedule around trains.
Fulton Market
Brick and timber warehouses on one lot and new glass on the next. 360 North Green, McDonald's on Carpenter Street, Mondelez on Fulton Market, Google on the old cold storage site. The district everyone has moved to.
River North and Wolf Point
Converted printing lofts with exposed brick and big windows for the agencies and design studios, theMART on the north bank, and Salesforce Tower at the confluence. The best mix of loft and tower within a few blocks.
Streeterville and the Michigan Avenue towers
Northwestern Memorial, Lurie Children's and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, with the American Medical Association at AMA Plaza and the American Dental Association on Michigan Avenue. Institutional, modern, and mostly interior work.
What Downtown Chicago is built on
The sectors that define this market, and what each one usually needs.
Law
Kirkland & Ellis at Wolf Point, Sidley Austin at One South Dearborn, Mayer Brown, Winston & Strawn and Jones Day on Wacker, Latham & Watkins at AMA Plaza, Jenner & Block on Clark, Katten on Monroe, McDermott at River Point, Greenberg Traurig on Green Street.
Attorney bios matched across offices and practice groups, and a standard the next lateral hire drops into without a reshoot.
Trading and finance
CME Group on Wacker with its trading floor in the Board of Trade Building, Cboe in the Old Post Office, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Northern Trust on LaSalle, Bank of America at 110 North Wacker and BMO on Canal.
Executive portraits with the weight the business expects, and floor and facility imagery where access is tightly controlled.
Consulting and professional services
Accenture in its own tower above Ogilvie, Deloitte and EY on Wacker, PwC on Wacker and Wabash, KPMG in the Aon Center, McKinsey on Randolph, Boston Consulting Group on Green Street.
Large repeatable headshot programs across several floors, refreshed on a cycle.
Advertising and marketing
Leo Burnett and Starcom in the Leo Burnett Building, Edelman in the Aon Center, FCB and Energy BBDO on Michigan Avenue, Havas in River North, Ogilvy in the West Loop.
The work most like ours: brand films, campaign video and library photography made to a brief and a client's deadline.
Food, consumer and manufacturing headquarters
McDonald's, Mondelez and Molson Coors in the West Loop and Fulton Market, Conagra and Kellanova in River North, Kraft Heinz in the Aon Center, Archer Daniels Midland on Wacker.
Leadership portraits, facility film and product-adjacent library work a marketing team can draw on for a year.
Healthcare and life sciences
Northwestern Memorial and Lurie Children's in Streeterville, and the Illinois Medical District two miles west with Rush, Stroger, UI Health and the Jesse Brown VA on adjoining blocks.
Physician directories at scale, photographed on site between clinics rather than in a studio nobody has time to visit.
What we make in Downtown Chicago
Headshot programs are usually the first project. They are rarely the only one.
Corporate headshot programs
Whole floors photographed on site in one or two days, to one standard.
Learn MoreExecutive portraits
Leadership portraits with the weight the business expects.
Learn MoreBrand films and campaign video
Directed, filmed and edited by one person, from scope to delivery.
Learn MoreAttorney and partner bios
Matched across offices, with new partners added later without a reshoot.
Learn MoreRecruiting and culture video
Made in the building people would actually work in.
Learn MoreConference and event coverage
Sessions, keynotes and headshot booths.
Learn MoreWhy it matters in Downtown Chicago
A good deal of corporate Chicago has changed buildings in the last decade and the photography usually has not. Kirkland moved to Wolf Point, Greenberg Traurig and Boston Consulting Group to Green Street, Molson Coors across the river to Canal Street, and LaSalle Street itself is being converted to apartments. Team photography made in the old building looks like the old building. A move is the most common reason a company finally rebuilds its image library, and the right moment is once everyone is in the new space and before the website relaunch that follows.
Buildings we work in around Downtown Chicago
Each has its own page: what the building is, who is there, and what a session in it involves.
Willis Tower
233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL
One hundred and ten stories at 233 South Wacker, and the address a large share of the Loop gives out. If your team is on one of those floors, this is how a session here runs.
Aon Center
200 East Randolph Street, Chicago, IL
Eighty three floors at the north edge of Millennium Park, with Aon, KPMG, Kraft Heinz and Edelman on the tenant list. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
theMART
222 West Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL
4.2 million square feet on the north bank of the river, across two city blocks. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
The Old Post Office
433 West Van Buren Street, Chicago, IL
2.8 million square feet of 1921 limestone over the Eisenhower, restored and full again. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
Accenture Tower
500 West Madison Street, Chicago, IL
Forty two floors built over Ogilvie Transportation Center, where a large part of the West Loop arrives every morning. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
110 North Wacker
110 North Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL
Fifty seven floors on the river, opened in 2020 and the tallest office tower built in Chicago since 1990. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
BMO Tower
320 South Canal Street, Chicago, IL
Fifty one floors at 320 South Canal Street, beside Union Station, completed in 2022. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
River Point
444 West Lake Street, Chicago, IL
Fifty two floors at 444 West Lake Street, on the riverfront where the branches of the Chicago River meet. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
Salesforce Tower Chicago
333 West Wolf Point Plaza, Chicago, IL
Sixty floors and 850 feet at Wolf Point, completed in 2024. If your team is here, this is how a session in the building runs.
Leo Burnett Building
35 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL
Fifty floors at 35 West Wacker Drive, on the Loop side of the river. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
360 North Green
360 North Green Street, Chicago, IL
A Sterling Bay building in Fulton Market, the newest office district downtown. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
Chicago Board of Trade Building
141 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, IL
The 1930 Art Deco tower at the foot of the LaSalle Street canyon. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
The Rookery
209 South LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL
Burnham and Root, 1888, with a light court restored by Frank Lloyd Wright. If your team is in this building, this is how a session here runs.
Buildings and districts we work in around Downtown Chicago
On site at your own office, wherever that is.
What every session includes
The same standard in every city, because it is the same photographer in every city.
Direction people relax into
Most people dread being photographed. I demonstrate, they mirror, and the guarded expression is gone in about thirty seconds.
Real-time review
Every frame appears on a tethered monitor as we shoot, so nobody leaves the room wondering how it went.
One consistent standard
The same lighting and framing used in every other city you operate in, so the team page holds together.
Professional retouching
Every final image is edited personally. You look like yourself, on a good day.
Photography and video in one visit
Filmed in 4K, which means a production day hands back a still library as well as the film.
On site at your office
The full setup travels. A conference room or an open corner is enough, and your team never leaves the building.
Henry grew up on the North Shore and studied at Northwestern, so downtown Chicago is not a market he had to learn. Programs here are scheduled as full days, and the travel is quoted as a line item rather than buried in a per-person rate.
Chicago companies we work with
We already photograph for firms headquartered here
Johnson + Krol is a Chicago labor and employment firm, and its attorneys are our clients. When the firm opened an office in another state, the brief was not to give the new attorneys a look. It was to match the one already running on its Chicago bios: green canvas, relaxed clothing, warm frontal light. That session was photographed at the firm's St. Louis office, which is the point worth making here. Matching an established Chicago standard frame for frame, from another state, is a harder test than starting from scratch would have been.
IWR North America is a building enclosure contractor founded in St. Louis in 1895. The company describes itself as headquartered in the Midwest with satellite offices in Dallas and Chicago. We built the headshot program that runs across IWR and its parent holding company, MHS Legacy Group: more than thirty people on one standard, with new hires still matching the originals.
Trusted by leading organizations
Downtown Chicago questions
What teams in this market usually ask first.
Can you photograph in a Class A tower lobby?▼
How do you work around building security and loading?▼
We have just moved to Fulton Market. When should we shoot?▼
Can you cover two buildings in one day?▼
What do you need from us on the day?▼
Planning something in Downtown Chicago?
Tell me the headcount, the buildings and the dates. A proposal follows a short conversation, and questions are answered within one business day.