Art & Life with Andrew Harris

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Harris.

Andrew, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was raised a little different than most people. I was put up for adoption when I was a little boy and I got adopted by two wonderful and amazing parents.
Some of my earliest memories of photographing were at state parks around the US, when my dad and I would ride his motorcycle around the country. At 15 I sold my bike and bought my first Sony camera- it’s crazy to think that 18 years later I’m still using Sony cameras! As a kid people would come to me, asking me if I was going to play college ball- because I am 6 feet 5 and huge! That never interested me, I knew as I got older and after high school that I wanted to create. My photography has a strong emphasis in modern and contemporary design, this is because as a youngster I would study different advertisements in magazines like Couture, and Dolce & Gabbana knowing that was what I wanted to do some day. My first big commercial advertisement photo shoot was working with Google through their business view program, through that I got to travel around the US photographing businesses. That experience solidified that this was a career I wanted to pursue. From there, photography has taken me all over the US, from shooting on the East Coast to shooting on the West Coast. My clients have ranged from Herndon Aerospace to Uber eats, Amazon, Crawford Milly and Tilly Engineers, Lawson Products and Lincolnwood School District and so many more! I love being an advertisement, commercial and product photographer- it’s awesome working with different designers, art buyers and awesome art directors to come up with great concepts for campaigns. My company is called Commercialphotovideo.com and our motto is simple, “From concept to completion, on time and on budget”. You can find me these days in Chicago, and if you’re lucky maybe a couple times a year in New York. If you see me out you should come up and say hi, I’m the guy with the big smile and camera that looks like an ex-NFL Linebacker. I look forward to seeing where the rest of my photography career takes me, every day is a new adventure and experience. My name is Andrew Harris and thank you for reading about me. Cheers!

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My art is created a lot of times with simulated light. I prefer to use between 3- 5 different types of lights when I photograph. I like to use daylight as well and blend it all together. Because I do commercial photography, I want people to see the product I am capturing in the best light possible- no pun intended. Also, I like to do street photography, and this type of art is amazing because you capture the city and see how much of a living, breathing animal it is. If you ask it for a photo, it will give it to you, you just have to be patient.

Do you think conditions are generally improving for artists? What more can cities and communities do to improve conditions for artists?
Yes, I think it is a lot easier now as an artist with different avenues of being able to be seen. When I first started there were only a certain amount of people who had exposure easily, now there are so many different ways for that to happen. Chicago can continue to help artists thrive by being a city that embraces culture, because with culture art is created. It can also work on increasing its openness to diversity so that all feel welcome and are able to create art. Chicago has done that for me, so I want others to feel that as well.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
You can check out my website at commercialphotovideo.com or Instagram which is commercialphotovideo

Contact Info:

• Website: www.commercialphotovideo.com
• Email: info@commercialphotovideo.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/commercialphotovideo

Image Credit:
Andrew Harris

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