How One Photographer Overcame Setbacks to Become a Successful Commercial Photographer

One of the hardest things for artists to learn is how to make it professionally. In this video, a commercial photographer describes his journey and the obstacles he overcame to achieve success.

John Gress is a commercial photographer based out of Chicago known primarily for his dramatic lighting style. He began his career as a photojournalist working for some of the nation's largest news outlets a few years before the recession of 2008 hit. Gress describes some of the ups and downs of his career, including covering large sporting events and presidential candidates. After the recession, he switched genres and began working more as a portrait photographer where he was posing and lighting subjects. This gave him an opportunity to create a more stylized approach to his work and perfect his lighting skills.

One of the most interesting parts of this video is watching the skill progression as he takes advantage of the opportunities to experiment with different lighting setups The results of the practice and experimentation with new techniques really shows through as he cycles through his old images from 2008 though his current work and describes what he was doing along the way to have those opportunities to create those images.

For all of us working through the global pandemic, it’s important to look back at how other photographers have pushed through similar tough economic times to come out on top.