The delicate magic in any shot manifests, lives, and breathes in the tiniest details–those anxious moments just before the emerging artist with only a demo to her or his name takes the stage; the light catching a furtive half-smile that blossoms into the raging joy of playing for an amped up room that won’t stop calling for more when it’s over. There is so much kinetic power and connection in those moments.

Through my lens I try to bottle up as much of that energy as I can. Some artists I have worked with toured only once, never seeing their records go to press. They go back to their jobs, loved ones, and the many places that inspired them to take to the road to begin with. If I’m able to get it right for them on their one night gracing a small big city stage though, those moments will live forever. They can smile even harder that it happened.

That’s the goal every time I release the shutter.

My focus for the first decade of shooting was on travel, wildlife, and macro projects that I worked on rambling across four continents and as close as my own Chicago front stoop. Since 2016, I have almost exclusively focused on concert photography. I have been blessed to creatively collaborate with several artists on a local record label on songwriting and photography projects. I became an ASCAP publishing member in 2016, and since then have also received invitations to shoot at multiple venues including the long-gone-but-legendary Rock Island Daytrotter Studio, Chicago classics for emerging artists–Schuba’s, Lincoln Hall, the Green Mill and Vic Theatres–and even a trip to Ryman Auditorium. A tagalong invite from an artist who remains a dear friend to this day to attend the 2016 SXSW Festival in Austin was also a major highlight. She was an unending source of encouragement for me then and continues to be one now. She paid me for my photos with an old Flying-V–complete with a lightning-bolt guitar strap. It remains among my most treasured possessions.

Since 2013, some of my work has appeared in the Chicago Reader, Quad City Times, Brooklyn Vegan, Chicagoist, Pitchfork, and in assorted artist and label promotional materials.  If you are interested in collaboration, please reach out!